The requisition of personnel ordered by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne does not concern fuel depots but not refineries.
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The requisition of personnel from the oil company Esso-ExxonMobil “can make it possible to send the product which is in the tanks of the refinery, towards the customers and in particular the service stations”, explained Tuesday, October 11 on franceinfo Olivier Gantois, president of the French Union of Petroleum Industries (UFIP Energies and Mobilities). Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne ordered the requisition of essential personnel from the Esso-ExxonMobil depots, considering that it “you have to know how to end a strike once satisfaction has been obtained”. The head of government alludes to the agreement reached between management and the unions representing a majority of employees.
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The President of UFIP Energies and Mobilities ensures that “the activities of shipping finished petroleum products to customers and service stations which are suspended” due to strike “may resume as part of a requisition.” Moreover, the situation is already improving thanks to the establishment “imports since the shutdown of the refineries on strike for the same volume. There is a delay for the effect of these imports to be felt and I think we will feel it more”, explained Olivier Gantois. These imports “come from Belgium, the Netherlands, which is a very export zone of finished oil products, but also from the Middle East.”
“These imports will continue until the refineries have restarted.”
Olivier Gantoisfranceinfo
The return to normal can only be done when we are no longer in “a degraded logistics situation. Logistics is organized to receive imports and refinery productions.” If the refineries restart, “it will take several days” before returning to a normal situation, according to Olivier Gantois. He is pointing out that “The two Esso refineries which are currently shut down represent roughly a third of French production”. They are not affected by the requisition.