France requisitions depot staff as fuel pumps run dry

The French energy ministry has begun issuing requisition orders forcing striking oil workers to release gasoline and diesel stocks to counter a growing fuel shortage at service stations caused by two weeks of industrial action at refineries, ports and storage facilities.

So far the requisition orders are confined to three staff per shift at a storage depot at the Mediterranean port of Fos-Lavera. "The government have started to order requisitions. After this they will probably attack the refineries," a worker at the port said.

Strikes across France's downstream oil sector — part of nationwide protests over government pension reforms — have extended to a 15th day. Blockades on product shipments leaving refineries and depots have left many service stations short of diesel, gasoline and LPG, according to the energy ministry. The prefectures at Var and Bouches-du-Rhone have issued temporary orders to halt purchases of fuels in containers, while the Vaucluse region is limiting fuel purchases to 30 litres for car drivers and 120l for lorries.

The strikes are also hampering crude deliveries to refineries. The country's largest refinery — the 246,900 b/d Gonfreville facility — is "going into a cold stop" today, operator TotalEnergies said. Workers at Gonfreville told Argus yesterday that the final units at the refinery were slated to stop today. Product deliveries from the refinery are still being blocked by striking workers.

TotalEnergies' 219,000 b/d Donges refinery is also shut, having closed before the strikes started because of a fire. The industrial action has prevented repair work from going ahead. Deliveries from Donges are being blocked by workers. A confrontation broke out between dockers and police when a seaborne cargo of diesel arrived at Donges from the Netherlands last night. The vessel remains at the berth. It is not clear if it has unloaded yet.

The 109,000 b/d Feyzin plant at Lyon is now TotalEnergies' only French refinery still operating, despite staff there previously voting to halt operations. But it is "in service at low levels", the firm said, and deliveries from the refinery are halted. Strikes at the company's Carling petrochemicals plant, La Mede hydrotreated vegetable oil plant near Marseille and Flanders logistics depot are continuing.

Elsewhere, ExxonMobil's 133,000 b/d Fos refinery is still running, albeit at very low run rates. Workers there have allowed some product to leave as storage tanks are full. The situation is being complicated by a dockers strike at the Fos-Lavera port, which has been extended by a further three days to the night of 24 March. Around 3.2mn bl of crude is waiting near the port and another 635,000 bl of Saudi Arab Light is due to arrive later today.

ExxonMobil's 236,000 b/d Port Jerome refinery is still operating. Workers had expected it to shut but a shipment of Libyan crude delivered yesterday has allowed the plant to stay open.

Outside the port of Le Havre, which serves the Port Jerome and Gonfreville refineries, four tankers are waiting with a total of around 3.6mn bl of Nigerian and US crude on board.

By Adam Porter