If you are currently driving in France, it is better not to drive in reserve.

Especially on the borders with Belgium and Germany, more and more gas stations have been empty for weeks.

So it can happen that no petrol or diesel is available at times.

Niklas Zaboji

Economic correspondent in Paris

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The fuel shortage has reached Parisian politics.

Nationwide, 12 percent of petrol stations are currently experiencing difficulties with at least one type of fuel, France's government spokesman Olivier Véran said in the middle of this week.

He emphasized that there were "bottlenecks" but not "undersupply" - but admitted that the problem is even worse in areas like the Hauts-de-France region in the north-east on the border with Belgium.

The situation worsens.

On Friday, Véran spoke of 15 percent of all gas stations in the country with delivery problems - almost every seventh.

But the government is trying to calm things down.

The day before, Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher had announced that "some" of the strategic fuel reserves would be released.

"We are in the process of improving the situation, it will take two or three days a priori," she said.

Last but not least, this was addressed to Xavier Bertrand, President of the Hauts-de-France regional council.

In a fire letter to the government, he had demanded a quick remedy, since individual school bus routes could not operate due to a lack of diesel.

"There is radio silence"

There are two reasons for the bottlenecks.

On the one hand, there is the state fuel rebate, which the French government introduced in April to boost purchasing power and increased again at the beginning of September from 18 to 30 cents per liter of fuel.

As a result, the price for a liter of E10 petrol sometimes fell to 1.50 euros.

Refueling and driving a car in France has become noticeably cheaper.

Word has also got around abroad.

Above all in border regions such as Lorraine and the Ardennes, a tank tourism has developed in recent weeks that was previously only known from Luxembourg or Austria.

In addition, the German fuel rebate expired at the end of August, making fuel 17 to 35 cents more expensive again.

The second reason for the bottlenecks at French gas stations are strikes in the refineries of the energy company Totalenergies (formerly Total).

In the majority of the plants, production has been throttled or paralyzed for the eleventh day in a row.

The CGT union, which is considered to be more radical, is demanding 10 percent more wages and made it clear on Friday that it would continue the blockade in the coming days given the management's lack of willingness to talk.

"There is radio silence, we have no contact," said a union spokesman.

Totalenergies, market leader in the gas station business in France, does not speak of a "shortfall" any more than the government and is now increasingly relying on imported fuels.

But even before the refinery strike, the group was even more affected by bottlenecks at the pumps than competitors such as Esso, Shell or the Leclerc supermarket chain.

In parallel with the increase in the state fuel discount to 30 cents at the beginning of September, Totalenergies also extended the group's tank discount, which had previously only been granted sporadically, to all stations in France and increased it to 20 cents per liter of fuel.

That makes a total of 50 cents.

Totalenergies already spoke in mid-September of a "run" at the gas stations and around 40 percent more customers than in the same period last year.