Blockades and pickets continue at refineries and fuel is becoming scarce at the pumps. According to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, 15% of the 11,000 French service stations are in a situation of shortage of at least one fuel, and around 8% are completely out of stock.

Some regions, such as Paca, Brittany or Pays de la Loire, are more affected, and two thirds of their stations sometimes experience a shortage. In the Bouches-du-Rhône, a third of the stations are affected, while one in two is experiencing difficulties in Ille-et-Vilaine and Morbihan. Sales restrictions have been decided in certain territories, such as in Var and Gard. In Paris and its inner suburbs, this Saturday, March 25, there was no overflowing queue or chaos around the pumps with panicked motorists coming to fill their tanks.

Ten days will be needed before everything goes back to normal.

These supply difficulties are explained by the strikes in six refineries in France, to challenge the pension reform. Fuel shipments are blocked. In response, the State requisitioned, on Friday, four employees of the Gonfreville site (Seine-Maritime), owned by TotalÉnergies, to supply Île-de-France and in particular the airports where the level of kerosene stocks was becoming critical.

Same situation, in Fos-sur-Mer, Lavera (Bouches-du-Rhône) or in Donges (Loire-Atlantique), where production has also been shut down for a technical problem, unrelated to the conflict. In Gravenchon-Port-Jérôme, on the other hand, the installations were stopped this Friday for lack of crude oil supply, following the blockage of an oil depot in Le Havre. At least ten days will be needed before everything goes back to normal on the site, which represents 20% of French refining capacity.

Despite everything, tankers continue to bring fuel to service stations, from the 200 depots that mesh the territory. Between five and ten sites are currently blocked, such as those in Le Havre, or Frontignan, in Hérault. The police lift the blockages in the event of an increase in shortages in the sector. This happened at the site of Port-la-Nouvelle, in Aude, which the CRS liberated this Friday morning, so that truck rotations could resume.