PASCAL GUYOT / AFP
A queue at the Palavas les Flots petrol station in Hérault on 5 October (illustration).
POLICY – A pump that lasts. This Sunday, October 9 at 3pm, the Ministry of Energy Transition announced that almost a third of the local service stations (29.7%) were experiencing supply difficulties “on at least one product”, following the refinery strike.
It is more than Saturday at the same time (21%) and the situation is particularly tense in Hauts-de-France and Île-de-France. In Pas-de-Calais these difficulties affect as much as 59.1% of the service stations (compared to 41% on Saturday). Same thing in the North, where 55.8% of the stations are involved, compared to 39% yesterday. ” In Île-de-France, there were 44.9% of petrol stations on at least one product “.
The “race for gas stations”
A situation that indicates that motorists have flocked to the pump in anticipation of next week, as the situation improved on Saturday. ” We are facing a rush to service stations beyond the usual fuel consumption (+ 30% in some areas), which is worsening the situation “, deplores Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Energy Transition in a press release published this Sunday.
” The French no longer have to suffer the consequences of a social movement. This conflict must end “., she insists. The minister, who had to self-isolation causes covidobserves the step taken ” by Total’s management today in anticipation of the annual mandatory negotiations in October, thus responding to the government’s appeal and said wait in the next few hours »The return of Esso management on the matter. The Total and ExxonMobiles refineries announced the renewal of the strike in the morning.
Improvements next week
” In the meantime, we have taken steps in recent days to open fuel depots which are usually closed on weekends and to allow truck traffic on Saturdays and Sundays. We also released strategic stocks and increased our imports “specifies Agnès Pannier-Runacher, specifying that these measures ” allowed an increase in deliveries of around 20% compared to the usual flows “.
In doing so, the Minister for Energy Transition wants to be reassuring, ensuring that ” these additional volumes should allow for an improvement in the situation over the course of Monday “. An identical story from Elisabeth Borne, who also ensured that tensions in the fuel supply at gas stations were going to end. “improve during the week”like the arrival of “deliveries” deriving in particular from “Strategic actions” French.
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