Total Halts French Refineries as Workers Extend Strike
Total SA, Europe’s biggest refiner, started to halt operations at all its French plants following a strike, increasing the likelihood of fuel shortages.
The industrial action is “incompatible with the normal functioning of the refineries,” Michael Crochet-Vourey, a spokesman for Total, said by telephone. The Paris-based company has five active plants in France, able to process 945,000 barrels of crude oil a day.
“Total workers have not only decided to extend the strike but to toughen the action by stopping all the refining installations,” the CGT union, the largest in the industry, said in a statement. “Since yesterday not one drop of fuel is leaving Total sites.”
France may face fuel shortages as early as next week, according to the Union Francaise des Industries Petrolieres, or UFIP, an industry group. Workers at 10 of France’s 12 refineries including all of Total’s six sites were on strike as part of a national protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension overhaul, according to the CGT.
European gasoline in northwest Europe advanced to a five- month high last week as refineries curbed production. The motor fuel traded as high as $769 a ton today, up 13 percent since the strike began.
Stranded Vessels
A strike at the port of Marseille’s Fos and Lavera oil terminals, which has blocked crude oil imports, entered its 17th day, leaving 55 vessels stranded including 38 fuel tankers and 11 gas transporters, according to a statement from the port.
“This situation is a shame,” French Junior Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said in the National Assembly today. “This is killing French ports little by little.”
CMA CGM SA, the Marseille-based French shipper, is diverting vessels to Genoa or elsewhere in Italy and creating “real problems” for the chemical industry, he said.
The Marseille port strike has cost the French chemicals industry 550 million euros ($768 million) in lost revenue because bulk chemicals carriers aren’t able to dock, according to the Union des Industries Chimiques. Exports are being diverted through Barcelona, Genoa and the North Sea at extra cost.
At Total, the decision was taken to stop units at Donges, Feyzin, Grandpuits and Normandy for safety reasons and to prevent a buildup of fuel, Crochet-Vourey said. Total had already begun stopping operations at the La Mede refinery near Marseille because of crude shortages, he said.
Workers at the port of Marseille are demanding changes to the implementation of a ports reform law from 2008 and have left dozens of vessels stranded.
Shortages
Four of the six refineries dependent on crude supplies from Marseille may start closing at the end of this week, UFIP said. The refiners’ group has said fuel shortages may begin in regions near Marseille at the start of next week.
Workers at Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Gravenchon refinery, Petroplus Holdings AG’s Reichstett plant and LyondellBasell Industries NV plant aren’t on strike today, according to union officials.
“We will not stop the refinery at the end of the week,” Catherine Brun, a Paris-based spokeswoman for Exxon, said by phone, referring to the Fos facility in the south of France.
The Marseille docks have experienced stoppages in recent years as unions have resisted efforts to transfer public jobs to private companies. A 12-day strike in December 2008 cost refineries 26 million euros, including 15 million euros related to vessel delays and 11 million euros in lost revenue, UFIP estimated at the time. A strike at the oil terminals in March 2007 lasted 17 days.
To contact the reporters on this story: Tara Patel in Paris at tpatel2@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net
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