Strikes in France: Exxon must close the Port Jerome refinery. Who will supply the fuel to France?
An extension of the ongoing strikes at the French port of Le Havre has disrupted deliveries of crude oil to ExxonMobil's nearby Port Jerome refinery, according to the CGT trade union.
Exxon's Port Jerome refinery — a 236,000 bpd refinery in northern France — and its Gravenchon petrochemical plant will cease operations today, the CGT said, according to Argus reports. The refinery was due to close earlier this week due to strikes but has received a shipment of crude oil from Libya.
TotalEnergies' Gonfreville Refinery also closed earlier in the week, a refinery producing 246,900 barrels a day. Four workers at this refinery were instructed by the police last night to release stocks of jet fuel destined for Paris airports.
The other closed French refineries are the 219,000 bpd Total refinery in Donges and the 207,000 bpd Petroineos refinery in Lavera.
Strikes shut down refineries as French President Emmanuel Macron pushed through a controversial pension reform without a vote in Parliament, under parliamentary clause 49.3. The pension reform would increase the retirement age and the old-age pension. The pension reform would raise the retirement age in France by two years to 64.
The strikes disrupted power supplies, refining operations and fuel deliveries for nearly two weeks.
In addition to refining operations, strikes have disrupted LNG imports into France, as LNG import terminals have been closed.
France has four LNG receiving terminals, Dunkirk, Montoir, Fos Cavaou and Fos Tonkin. At least seven shipments of LNG bound for France have changed routes after the strikes and are now bound for alternative ports in the Netherlands, the UK and Spain.
Strikes over pensions have been going on for a good part of this year, even as French refineries have seen a multitude of closures due to strikes stemming from other issues, such as wages. Total and ExxonMobil own most of the refining capacity in France.
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The article Strikes in France: Exxon must close the Port Jerome refinery. Who will supply the fuel to France? comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/scioperi-in-francia-exxon-deve-chiudere-la-raffineria-di-port-jerome-chi-fornira-il-carburante-alla-francia/ on Sat, 25 Mar 2023 08:00:39 +0000.