Will the use of the 49.3 run out of fuel for the France? The announcement Saturday by the CGT of the shutdown of the largest refinery in France, the TotalEnergies site of Gonfreville-L'Orcher (Seine-Maritime), marks a hardening in the conflict against the pension reform.

For several weeks now, the refining unions had been proposing to the strikers the outright shutdown of their work tools. But if the seven refineries of France have proceeded since January, on many occasions, to the suspension of shipments of the fuels produced there, since the beginning of the conflict their employees did not want to cross this threshold, the shutdown of these huge industrial facilities, and their restart, being very heavy. Until Friday, the day after the government forced its way through Parliament.

"I don't believe in rapid degradation"

"The units have been shutting down since last night," Alexis Antonioli, CGT secretary general of the refinery, told AFP on Saturday. This shutdown will take several days and is not expected to cause immediate fuel shortages at gas stations. The France has 200 oil depots and tankers have anticipated to avoid the giant shortage last October, caused by a wage dispute at TotalEnergies and Esso.

At this stage, the situation in the stations is described as "good" by Francis Pousse, president of the professional union Mobilians, which represents 5,800 of them. According to him, about 6% of gas stations lack one or more products throughout the country. "I don't believe in rapid deterioration," he added, stressing that non-refinery fuel depots have "decent stock levels."

Requisitions envisaged in case of shortage

Industry Minister Roland Lescure, however, has already hinted Saturday that the government could proceed with requisitions, as happened in the fall and as the government is currently doing in Paris for garbage collectors.

In Gonfreville-L'Orcher, near Le Havre, strikers have completely blocked fuel shipments since Thursday afternoon. The stocks on the site are therefore full today. In this case, the management of the refinery ultimately has no choice but to stop the production concerned. This may not last, according to Eric Sellini, CGT union coordinator for the group, who specifies that "the (shutdown) operations are scheduled until Monday evening".

Some idling refineries

There are six conventional refineries in France (and one biorefinery). One is stopped for technical reasons (TotalEnergies in Donges), two are at reduced flow rate (TotalEnergies in Feyzin, near Lyon; Esso-ExxonMobil in Fos-sur-Mer). That of TotalEnergies in Normandy is therefore being stopped.



The last two conventional refineries could, according to Eric Sellini, follow: the PetroIneos refinery in Lavéra (Bouches-du-Rhône), which the CGT predicted Friday to shut down for Monday afternoon "at the latest"; and that of Esso-ExxonMobil in Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime) could be shut down Monday or Tuesday, for lack of crude oil to refine, because of a strike at the oil depot of Le Havre.

"We are no longer delivered in crude oil"

"Fuel deliveries are suspended for at least 24 hours" to the refinery, said ExxonMobil CGT General Secretary Germinal Lancelin. "The complete shutdown is not yet scheduled, the refinery is still idling because we are no longer delivered in crude oil," he said.

If TotalEnergies reports an average rate of strikers down in its refineries, to 37% among operators on Saturday morning, this desire to harden the mobilization comes in a tense context, since production in Donges (Loire-Atlantique) is already at a standstill for a technical problem unrelated to the conflict. There is also in France the TotalEnergies biorefinery in La Mède, near Marseille, whose import depot is blocked.

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