PARIS (Reuters) – Supply tensions were still high at petrol stations on Saturday as workers at TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil continued their strike to demand wage increases.
Slightly more than one in five gas stations (20.7%) experienced supply difficulties in France in the middle of the day on Saturday in at least one fuel, we learned from the Ministry of Energy Transition, resulting in long queues of motorists in front of stations that are still open.
Tensions were particularly high in Hauts-de-France and Île-de-France, although, according to the ministry, the situation was improving there.
In Pas-de-Calais and in the North, still nearly 40% of service stations were affected.
“The strike movement persists in refineries and oil depots. The measures we have taken, including the authorization for heavy goods vehicles refueling the stations to circulate on weekends, have made it possible to stabilize the situation at the national level”, has said in a press release the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
“In the context of the energy crisis, I call on everyone not to add difficulty to the difficulty. These social movements, which weigh on the daily lives of the French, must find a solution as soon as possible”, he said. she adds,
The minister also says to appeal to the “responsibility” of motorists by refueling “as usual, without trying to stock up”, thus relaying an appeal launched Friday by Emmanuel Macron.
LONG WAIT
CGT union delegates at TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil each told Reuters that they were for the time being pursuing the movement on the back of wage demands.
The TotalEnergies delegates specified that they would once again ask their management to request the immediate opening of negotiations. They are demanding in particular wage increases of 10% in order to take into account inflation and the rise in the cost of living while the French energy group is making record profits.
TotalEnergies says it wants to wait until mid-November to conduct these discussions.
The CGT delegates from ExxonMobil specified, for their part, that the mobilization would continue during the weekend pending a meeting with their management on Monday.
The social movement has reduced France’s refining capacity by 60%, or 740,000 barrels of oil per day, according to calculations by Reuters.
“The situation behind me reflects France. We are putting it in trouble,” reacted Franck Chang as he waited to be able to refuel his scooter in front of a gas station in Paris. The queue stretched over 700 meters and lasted between 45 minutes and an hour, according to a journalist on site.
Asked about franceinfo, the Minister of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, Christophe Béchu, said on Saturday that there were no plans for the moment to introduce restrictions at the pump, apart from travel bans. fill jerry cans and jerry cans in some areas.
“We’re not there yet,” he said.
(Tassilo Hummel, Caroline Pailliez and Thomas Denis)