Total will present a conversion project for the 93,000 b/d Grandpuits refinery near Paris this week, according to French union CGT, suggesting the firm has decided to cease conventional refining at the site.
It is unclear when the refinery will stop processing crude but it is unlikely to run much beyond 2021, when it is due a costly full turnaround.
Total will present its project for the plant conversion in an internal meeting on 24 September. The firm suggested in June that the refinery could be converted to produce hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO), similar to Total's former 160,000 b/d refinery at La Mede. Other uses could include carbon capture and storage (CCS), bio-plastics or the recycling of polypropylene.
Grandpuits' future as a conventional refinery has been in doubt because of long-standing problems with a pipeline that provides around 90pc of its crude feedstock, combined with weaker demand and sustained negative margins as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Total had kept Grandpuits off line until 5 June, after it closed it in March for maintenance, because of slow demand.
Total's chief executive Patrick Pouyanne said that the biorefinery at La Mede was the firm's only facility to post a positive result during the second quarter. Conversion to biofuels production increasingly offers an alternative to closure or divestment for European refiners.
"There is quite a strong willingness from the policy makers to develop biofuels, renewable fuels — biojet, biodiesel," Pouyanne said. The firm will pursue "a more aggressive strategy to develop the bio business, in particular by converting some European refineries", he said.
Total has yet to reply to a request for comment.
