Another French refinery to shut: Update

adds details on strike at Fos-Lavera

Dockers at France's two main oil ports have voted to extend their strikes, raising the prospect that the country's remaining operational refining capacity will be forced offline because of a lack of crude, exacerbating fuel shortages.

ExxonMobil's 236,000 b/d Port Jerome refinery in northern France is poised to halt operations after dock workers at the nearby port of Le Havre voted to extend their strike action for an unspecified period. Dockers at the Mediterranean port of Fos-Lavera in the south of France have also voted to prolong their industrial action, putting at risk operations at the remaining refineries still running.

The pending closure of Port Jerome, reported by the CGT trade union, will leave France with just two operational refineries, the consequence of more than two weeks of industrial action across the country's downstream sector. Strikes by refinery and port workers are part of nationwide protests against the government's pension reforms.

The CGT said Port Jerome and the adjacent Gravenchon petrochemicals plant will halt operations today. Workers there had expected the refinery to shut earlier in the week, but it stayed open after a cargo of Libyan crude was delivered on 20 March. The refinery has yet to confirm the shutdown.

Elsewhere, four workers at TotalEnergies' nearby 246,900 b/d Gonfreville refinery, which shut down earlier in the week, were requisitioned by police last night to release fuel stocks. Unions say the stocks released were jet fuel, destined for Paris' airports. The requisitioning has prompted members of the CGT union and supporters to boost picket numbers outside the refinery. TotalEnergies confirmed the requisitions had taken place, but pointed to regional authorities for comment.

TotalEnergies 219,000 b/d Donges refinery and 500,000 t/yr La Mede hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) plant are both shut as a result of accidents that happened ahead of the strikes. The industrial action has prevented repair work from taking place. No shipments are leaving either site. Meanwhile, TotalEnergies' Flanders logistics depot is blockaded, while its Carling petrochemical plant is operating but at low levels.

UK-Chinese venture Petroineos' 207,100 b/d Lavera refinery in the south of France halted operations earlier this week. It was one of three French refineries served by the Fos-Lavera port, along with ExxonMobil's 133,000 b/d Fos plant and TotalEnergies' 109,300 b/d Feyzin facility near Lyon. Fos and Feyzin are still operating for the time being, although no product shipments are leaving either, and it remains to be seen how long they can maintain operations given that no crude is being offloaded at the Fos-Lavera complex.

Dockers at Fos-Lavera have voted to extend their strike by another week to 31 March. The walkout was slated to end at 22:00 local time (21:00 GMT) today. As a result of the dockers' action a line of crude and oil product cargoes are at anchor in or around Fos-Lavera, with a smaller number berthed. These include shipments of crude from Libya, the US, Saudi Arabia and Angola, some of which have been waiting since 14 March. A small cargo of Italian crude has been waiting since the end of February. A 785,000 bl shipment of Caspian CPC Blend should arrive tonight.

In addition 745,000 bl of diesel from Kuwait is waiting and a similar-sized diesel cargo from Saudi Arabia is slated to arrive late on 25 March. Around 22,000t of biodiesel is waiting to unload at the port in six tankers. One, the Basiluzzo M, has been waiting since 4 March. Cargoes of biodiesel and HVO feedstock including animal fats and vegetable oil are at anchor and more biodiesel is slated to arrive today.

By Adam Porter