PASCAL GUYOT / AFP
A queue at the Palavas les Flots gas station in Hérault on October 5 (image).
POLITICS – A pump that lasts. This Sunday, October 9, at 3 p.m., the Ministry of Energy Transition announced that almost a third gas stations of the territory (29.7%) experienced delivery problems “on at least one product”, following: refinery strike.
It is more than Saturday at once (21%) and the situation is particularly tense in Hauts-de-France and Île-de-France. In Pas-de-Calais, these difficulties affect no less than 59.1% of service stations (versus 41% on Saturdays). The same in the North, where 55.8% of stations are concerned, compared to 39% yesterday. ” In Île-de-France there were 44.9% of service stations with at least one product “.
The “Gas Station Rush”
A situation indicating that motorists have flocked to the pump in anticipation of the coming week, since the situation improved on Saturday. ” We are facing a rush to petrol stations above the usual fuel consumption (+30% in certain areas), which worsens the situation,” in a press release published this Sunday, deplores Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Energy Transition.
” The French must no longer suffer the consequences of a social movement. This conflict must end.”, she insists. The minister, who had to self isolation due to covidnotes the step taken” by Total management today in anticipation of the mandatory annual negotiations in October, in response to the government’s call and said wait in the next few hours » the return of Esso’s management on this issue. Total and ExxonMobiles refineries announced the extension of the strike in the morning.
Improvements next week
” Meanwhile, in recent days we have taken steps to open fuel depots that are normally closed on weekends and allow truck traffic on Saturdays and Sundays. We have also released strategic inventories and increased our imports”specifies Agnès Pannier-Runacher and specifies that these measures “ generated an increase in deliveries of approximately 20% compared to the usual flows “.
The Minister for Energy Transition wants to be reassuring with this and ensure that “ these additional volumes should allow for an improvement of the situation on Monday during the day An identical story on the part of Elisabeth Borne, who also assured that fuel supply voltages were rising in service stations “improve all week”like the arrival of “deliveries” especially coming from “strategic stocks” French.
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