Margaux Fodéré, edited by Alexandre Dalifard 20:25 pm, April 04, 2023

As Easter weekend approaches, French motorists are worried about a gasoline shortage. At the moment, only one in ten stations lacks at least one fuel and the government has made new requisitions, which should improve the situation by the weekend.

Will there be enough fuel? In France, this is the great concern of motorists as the Easter weekend approaches. For the moment, one station in ten lacks at least one fuel with more or less tense situations depending on the region. The government has made new requisitions, which should improve the situation by the weekend.

New requisitions ordered

This improvement is initially explained by the lifting of strikes in a number of depots and refineries. On Tuesday evening, Esso-ExxonMobil announced the restart of its refinery in Normandy. There are therefore two where fuel shipments are still blocked, those of TotalEnergies in Donges in Loire-Atlantique and Gonfreville in Seine-Maritime. And on the latter, the government ordered new requisitions to prepare for the Easter weekend.

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Then, there is a second reason to hope for an improvement and it is the French Union of Petroleum Industries (Ufip) which affirms it. In Ile-de-France, a region where tensions are high, fuel deliveries should relieve gas stations. "Given precisely the situation of tension of supply of unleaded gasoline in Ile-de-France, pumping from Normandy had been decided at the end of last week and will arrive in the stations of this region during the week," says Olivier Gantois, executive chairman of Ufip Energies and Mobility. And a sign that the situation is already improving, the number of petrol stations out of unleaded in the Paris region has increased from 39 to 31% in just one day.