Industrial action at France's Elengy-operated LNG import terminals is set to continue disrupting operations for a further four days, after it was extended again today, but unloadings could resume at Montoir and Fos Cavaou.
The strike at the 6.6mn t/yr Fos Cavaou, 8mn t/yr Montoir and 2.2mn t/yr Fos Tonkin terminals was set to end today at 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT), but instead it has been extended until 18 April. Small-scale truck loading operations will continue to be unavailable at all three facilities.
First unloadings scheduled
The Fos Cavaou and Montoir facilities are both scheduled to receive their first deliveries on 15 April, since the strike action started in early March, nominations show.
Fos Cavaou sendout was nominated higher this evening at 91 GWh/d on 14-18 April, up from 37 GWh/d for the previous period. Regasification is still expected to be muted at the facility until 19 April. But the terminal late this evening added an additional delivery to its schedule, for 70,500m³ of LNG on 19 April, and brought forward a 208,400m³ delivery to 15 April, from 19 April previously. This increases the number of deliveries scheduled at Fos Cavaou to five for this month. Regasification at the terminal was expected to resume today after there was no sendout or unloadings at the facility since 7 March.
Montoir also expects a 167,400m³ delivery on 15 April. Sendout at Montoir was nominated to step up on 15 April to 243 GWh/d after it was limited to 73 GWh/d on 5-14 April, according to the latest Elengy data.
Regasification is nominated to remain steady, at about 61 GWh/d, on 14-30 April at Fos Tonkin, which resumed unloading operations on 9 April when it received a 72,100m³ delivery.
Combined sendout from the three Elengy-operated terminals was expected to average 363 GWh/d on 14-18 April — from 309 GWh/d previously — before climbing to 729 GWh/d for the remainder of this month (see graph).
France's constitutional council approved the majority of the proposed pension reform proposal late today. But there could be scope for industrial action in France to continue over the coming weeks, with unions aiming for large-scale protests on 1 May, Laurent Berger, general secretary of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour, said on 13 April.
