A Belgian stranded in Paris for lack of fuel. He contacted us via the orange Alert Us button. It is directly affected by the fuel shortage in France, due to a strike in refineries and TotalEnergies depots.
Christophe bears the brunt of it, he thought he was going back yesterday, but he was forced to spend a second night at the hotel. In his tank, he only has enough left to drive a few hundred kilometres, not enough to return to Liège. “We had to fill up to get home. We did all the stations around. There is diesel, but gasoline, there is no more. We had to resume a night of hotel on site, hoping that something will be unblocked in terms of fuel blockages. We take it philosophically with my wife, we will try to find a solution. We will not let ourselves be discouraged. Maybe a friend can pick us up. Or we’ll take a train back to Belgium.”he says.
Weekend strike in refineries and tensions at the pump
The strike by the CGT union at TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil was renewed on Saturday the day following an encouragement to negotiations launched by the government, which relaxed the rules for transporting fuels in an attempt to resolve the supply tensions in the stations.
“The situation should continue to improve, since we have taken authorizations so that the tank trucks can circulate this weekend” and “that we have released strategic stock”, declared Christophe Béchu, Minister of Ecological Transition interviewed on Saturday on Franceinfo. He had dismissed the prospect of restrictions at the pump for the time being: “We are not there, apart from the bans on filling jerrycans or cans, especially in the north of France where we have the most tense situation”.
On Friday, the Minister for Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher announced “difficulties” in 42% of the stations in Pas-de-Calais and 43% in the North, down slightly from the previous day. At the national level, 19% of service stations experienced shortages on at least one fuel Friday at midday, according to the ministry which ensures that France “has 90 days of consumption” in strategic stocks.
At the pump, the queues of motorists become a daily spectacle. “There I woke up at 4am to be able to look for gasoline, I’ll be waiting for 4 hours”, testified Terry Caboste, an employee of the metallurgy met Saturday in a Parisian station which limited the fillings to 30 euros per customer. From Prague, President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called on motorists to “calm” and oil groups and unions to “responsibility”. “I call on the companies concerned, which, for the most part, are still having good results, to also consider requests for wage increases,” Olivia Grégoire, Minister Delegate for Small and Medium Enterprises, had previously declared, without mentioning TotalEnergies by name and its 10.6 billion dollars in profit in the first half. While the CGT is demanding a 10% increase in 2022 – 7% for inflation, 3% for “wealth sharing” -, management recalls that it has granted salary measures representing an average increase of 3, 5% in 2022 and refers to a negotiating session scheduled for November 15 for 2023 wages. She seems inflexible on this timetable. On Saturday, three of the six French refineries were still shut down, according to the CGT: the largest refinery of TotalEnergies, in Normandy, and the two French refineries of the American Esso-ExxonMobil, where the movement was renewed on Saturday. Blockades by strikers lead to lower fuel deliveries, so petrol stations are more often out of stocks of petrol or diesel. TotalEnergies manages almost a third of French stations. But the group also puts the disturbances on the account of the success of the discount at the pump of 20 cents which it grants since September 1, in addition to the rebate of the State of 30 cents.