The supply of fuel to the Paris Basin by the large TotalEnergies refinery in Gonfreville-l’Orcher in Normandy resumed on Friday after an intervention by the police, said the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. “The pumping has restarted” and “this makes it possible to supply Ile-de-France”, declared the minister, questioned by RMC on the intervention of the police during the night to unblock the Normandy refinery and allow requisitioned employees to take up their service.
“These are ultra-targeted requisitions, we are talking about three or four employees who must take up their service,” added the minister. According to Eric Sellini, CGT Chimie national coordinator, “it is just the shipments that will resume, very partially and if they succeed, and on a single product, kerosene because the Paris airports are dry”.
Five out of six refineries shut down
The energy sector – gas, oil, electricity – has remained particularly mobilized since January 19 against the government’s pension reform. “Now, with deposits on strike, and five out of six refineries shut down, the objective is to hold out until the text is withdrawn,” added Eric Sellini. The government for its part has “three to four months” of stocks “to deal with any type of crisis” and from which the government has been drawing since the beginning of March, recalled Agnès Pannier-Runacher. “The subject is not stocks but logistics,” she said.
The TotalEnergies refinery, the largest in France, feeds a “very powerful” pipeline, underlined the minister. “It is important that it can work. The best way to supply the intermediate stocks which then make it possible to supply the service stations, is to push the fuel through these pipelines,” she added.