Panic feeds the shortage. On strike since December 5, but ensuring a mandatory minimum service, construction professionals will intensify their blocking of oil deposits to obtain the withdrawal of the pension reform. The CGT Federation of Chemistry called last week to block all petroleum installations – refineries, petroleum terminals, deposits – for 96 hours, from Tuesday 7 to Friday 10 January. “Seven out of eight refineries” will be on strike “from tomorrow for 96 hours,” said Thierry Defresne, central union representative at Total, on Monday.
Can these four days be enough to cause a shortage? In theory, a gas station has 2 to 3 days of inventory, up to 5 days on highways. The state also has strategic stocks, which can last about three months. There are also 200 fuel depots, where tankers can come to get supplies. As it stands, a shortage is therefore not to be feared. Except that, even if there is nothing to be alarmed by, for simple fear that this risk would become real, some motorists panic and are already rushing on the petrol pumps to fill up their means of locomotion .
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“It’s panic,” explains at the microphone of TF1 a driver who came to refuel at a service station in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the Hauts-de-Seine, where an endless queue of vehicles had formed. “We run, we run. We say to ourselves ‘but where are we going to catch the first station?'”. “I take my precautions because I have a quarter full. I come earlier than expected,” bounces a motorist. “I preferred to refuel and be free to do what I want,” says another.
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