Only one TotalEnergies site remains on strike today. This is the Feyzin fuel depot, in the Rhône.
After a month of strike, the last refinery mobilized for wages ends its mobilization. This Wednesday noon, the secretary general of the CGT of the Gonfreville-l’Orcher site, in Normandy, announced to AFP the lifting of the movement, thus confirming information from the daily “Paris-Normandy“. In the process, the management of TotalEnergies also confirmed that “the strike is over“.
The strike on this site had started on September 27th. Several Esso-ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies sites had also joined the social movement, demanding substantial wage increases, while the oil giants were reporting record profits. Donges, Mardyck, La Mède, Fos-sur-Mer… During the month of October, the refineries and depots resumed work, one after the other. A majority agreement at TotalEnergies prompted several sites to end the strike. Wednesday morning, only this refinery of the French giant remained, on the one hand, and an oil depot, in Feyzin, in the Rhône. After the announcement of this Wednesday, only this last place remains mobilized.
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Return to work expected to improve fuel supply
The resumption of work in Gonfreville was hoped for, in order to improve the supply of fuel to service stations, which is still disrupted. If the government has not spoken on the percentage of establishments in difficulty for several weeks, public data, exploited by Le Figaro, reveal that around 16% of stations were affected by one or more breaks, at the end of October. The situation has therefore still not returned to normal, with particularly strong tensions in certain areas, such as Île-de-France and the center-east.
However, Gonfreville is the largest refinery in France, representing a crude oil processing capacity of around 12.5 million tonnes, or around 22% of the total in France, according to Ufip and TotalEnergies. The site is followed by the Esso-ExxonMobil refinery in Port-Jérôme, with 12 million tonnes, that of TotalEnergies in Donges, with 11 million tonnes, and by that of Petroineos in Lavéra, with 9.9 million tonnes. In total, French refining capacity amounts to some 58 million tonnes per year, down sharply over ten years: in addition to these sites, France also has a refinery in Feyzin, two biorefineries in Grandpuits and La Mède, as well as a platform in Martinique, held by the Société anonyme de la raffinerie des Antilles (Sara).
It remains to be seen to what extent the resumption of work in Gonfreville will improve the situation. If restarting the site “started“, she “will take about a fortnight“, According to a source quoted by AFP. “Fuel shipments, from the substantial stocks available on the site, will be able to be relaunched quickly“, we add.
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