A strike by Port of Marseilles oil terminal workers, which entered its third wee ...

A strike by Port of Marseilles oil terminal workers, which entered its third week in early October, escalated into action on a national scale, affecting the majority of France’s 12 refineries and raising the spectre of fuel shortages, writes Stuart Todd. More than 50 tankers, gas and chemical vessels were at anchor awaiting entry to France’s biggest port for oil shipments as Petroleum Review went to press. The militant CGT staff union is protesting against plans to create a subsidiary to run the oil terminals at the port. Despite the fact that the public sector-owned Marseille Port Authority will hold a majority stake in the subsidiary and has given assurances that the jobs of the 220 staff working at the terminals will be maintained, the union remains unconvinced. On 12 October, the Marseilles workers were joined by staff from oil companies operating the four refineries located on the Etang de Berre, in the vicinity of the port, who have begun rolling strikes in protest to pensions reform. These refineries account for over 30% of French oil production and have had their activity progressively reduced since 27 September when the strike began at the crude oil reception terminals at Fos-sur-Mer and Lavera. Total’s refinery in Feyzin, near Lyon, and another, in Reichstett, in Alsace, run by Petroplus, are also affected as they are normally supplied by pipeline from Marseilles. In total, nine of France’s 12 refineries are currently reported to be affected by strike action and seven of them have begun procedures to shut-down production. They include the Total-operated Donges refinery, located at the Port of Nantes, in the west of the country. A CGT union representative at Total said it would not be long before service stations were running dry, but this was countered by the French oil group who insisted that the strikes were not having any ‘visible consequences on fuel supplies’. France’s oil industries federation, UFIP, has underlined that in the case of a supply crisis, the government could call upon reserve stocks representing national consumption over a three-month period.