Pension reform: requisitions of personnel at the Fos-sur-Mer oil depot

Europe 1 with AFP 09:08, March 21, 2023

The Ministry of Energy Transition announced Tuesday the requisition of "three employees per shift" at the Fos-sur-Mer oil depot "in the face of worsening supply tensions in the Bouches-du-Rhône", as a result of strikes against the pension reform. "The requisition is valid for 48 hours as needed, from March 21" and concerns "personnel essential to the operation of the depot" which supplies the PACA region and the east of the Occitanie region with fuel, said the ministry in a statement. The depot also ships fuel by pipeline to the Lyon region.

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Half of the service stations in the Bouches-du-Rhône lacked some type of fuel

"Today the stations remain generally well supplied at the national level, but tensions are crystallizing in PACA," explained Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher. Half of the service stations in the Bouches-du-Rhône lacked some type of fuel, and 37% were dry on Monday, according to public data analyzed by AFP. The situation was also particularly disturbed in the neighbouring departments of Gard (40.9%), Vaucluse (33.33%), Var (23.24%) and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (22.22%). Nationally, about 8% of France petrol stations ran out of petrol or diesel.

The prefectures of Vaucluse and Gard decided Monday to limit fuel sales in the stations of the department, until Thursday included, including 30 liters per vehicle while prohibiting the sale of gasoline in jerry cans. The lack of fuel also affects some departments in the West, such as Loire-Atlantique. The France has 200 oil depots. The Ufip, professional union of oil companies, evoked Monday "between five and eight blocked fuel depots".

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The police intervened in Donges

In refineries, which continue to produce even if the fuel is not shipped, strikes have also hardened recently, with the shutdown this weekend of production at the TotalEnergies site in Normandy, then the Petroineos refinery in Lavéra (Bouches-du-Rhône). The police intervened in the night from Monday to Tuesday to unblock the oil terminal of Donges (Loire-Atlantique), which had been occupied for a week by strikers, to facilitate the unloading of a cargo of diesel.