"Faced with the worsening of supply tensions" of service stations in the Bouches-du-Rhône, the Ministry of Energy Transition announced Tuesday "the requisition" of "three employees per shifter".

According to the police headquarters, three of the CRS deployed on the scene were "seriously injured", at least two of whom were transferred to the hospital of Martigues.

In the early afternoon, the demonstrators finally retreated, calm returned and, according to the police headquarters, the depot was functioning normally.

The CGT federations of ports and docks and chemical industries and the CGT of Bouches-du-Rhône "strongly condemn this repression which only strengthens (their) determination to obtain the withdrawal".

"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.

"Requisitions for strikes are illegal," Eric Sellini, an elected member of the CGT Chimie, told AFP, which said it had challenged the measure in summary proceedings.

Since the beginning of the mobilizations, "early March", the government has also used "in a targeted manner" strategic stocks "throughout the territory", announced the ministry.

The requisitions come the day after the adoption of the pension reform in Parliament, and on the eve of a television interview with Emmanuel Macron.

The inter-union called for a new day of strikes and demonstrations on Thursday.

"Tensions"

"Today, the stations remain generally well supplied at the national level, but tensions are crystallizing in PACA," said Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher.

Nearly 54% of service stations in the Bouches-du-Rhône lacked some type of fuel (petrol or diesel), and 41% were dry in the morning on Tuesday, according to public data analyzed by AFP.

The lack of fuel also affects some departments in the West, such as Loire-Atlantique or Ille-et-Vilaine.

Nationally, about 12% of France stations run out of petrol or diesel, and 6% run dry.

The police also intervened in the night from Monday to Tuesday to unblock the oil terminal of Donges (Loire-Atlantique), occupied for a week by strikers, to facilitate the unloading of a cargo of diesel.

In Le Havre, all access to the industrial zone as well as that of the port were blocked Tuesday morning.

3 out of 7 refineries are operating

Of the 200 oil depots in the territory, "between five and eight" are blocked, according to Ufip, the professional union of oil companies. These deposits contain about three months of French consumption, according to the Mobilians syndicate.

TotalEnergies has only one refinery out of four operating, in Feyzin near Lyon - from where the strikers also prevent any fuel from leaving. Its largest, in Normandy, stopped this weekend, and two others (Donges, La Mède) are stopped for reasons other than the strike.

Petroineos' only French refinery in Lavéra (Bouches-du-Rhône) also stopped because of the strike.

Esso-ExxonMobil's two refineries are still running: the Fos-sur-Mer refinery is operating at minimum throughput; that of Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon, which began to run out of oil to refine, received Monday, according to Eric Sellini, but shipments remain blocked.

© 2023 AFP