A strike is blocking any outflow of fuels from the TotalEnergies site in Gonfreville-l'Orcher (Seine-Maritime), the CGT said on Friday.

"There has been no product release since Tuesday, 1 pm," assured Alexis Antonioli, secretary of the CGT of this petrochemical platform.

The management of TotalEnergies indicated that following this "strike voted by the CGT, shipments of products from the Normandy platform could be disrupted".

"TotalEnergies will continue to ensure supplies for its network of service stations and its customers," added the group.

"The strikers have decided to raise the tone" by also stopping by "Saturday evening or Sunday morning" part of the production, added the trade unionist.

According to the CGT, striker rates for posted staff vary between 74% and 88% on the refining side.

On the petrochemical side, the figure is around 50% on average, says the union.

Air Liquide's conditions go badly

It is a plan to sell the site's hydrogen production unit to Air Liquide which “worries” the strikers, according to Alexis Antonioli. This project announced on Tuesday aims to "reduce the CO2 emissions associated with the unit's hydrogen production by around 650,000 tonnes per year by 2030", according to a joint press release from Air Liquide and TotalEnergies. It will be done "at a number of constant positions", according to the same source. "We are not against decarbonization but we could do it while continuing to operate our hydrogen unit", explains the unionist.

But Air Liquide "imposes as a condition of access to its decarbonisation technology the sale of our hydrogen production unit", he laments. However, “Air Liquide's project is to monitor the unit only on working days. There are fears in terms of safety and questions about the organization of work, ”says the trade unionist. According to him, "it is a first to sell a unit at the heart of our platform and integrated into our process". "We fear that this will be the first stone towards the outsourcing of new activities," he continues.

The hydrogen unit is part of a sector of the platform that employs 42 people on duty, according to the CGT.

According to management, the unit will be connected to the Air Liquide hydrogen network which includes a hydrogen production unit in Port-Jérôme (Seine-Maritime) where Air Liquide produces hydrogen for the neighboring ExxonMobil refinery.

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  • CGT

  • Strike

  • Refinery

  • Seine-Maritime

  • Total

  • Economy