MOSCOW (MRC) -- Staff at Petroineos' Lavera refinery in France started halting units this weekend due to a strike, according to S&P Global with reference to CGT sources and local media reports.
The company declined to comment.
There have also been meetings at the Grandpuits and Feyzin refineries and La Mede biofuels plant where the staff will decide later Monday whether to halt units, the CGT said.
French labor unions, including the CGT, FO and FSU, have called on employees in all sectors to take part in industrial action against the government's pension reforms. The industrial action, which started December 5, has beenextended several times.
Several unions have called for a large-scale strike and demonstrations on January 9, as well as demonstrations on December 28. In addition, the CGT union has submitted a strike notice from January 6 until February 6.
Supply has been intermittent from Total's Donges, Grandpuits, and La Mede plants and Petroineos' Lavera since the start of the industrial action. Operations and deliveries have returned to normal at Total's Feyzin, and the strike has been suspended at Total's Gonfreville refinery after a fire led to the shutdown of the crude distillation unit mid-December. The refinery is operating partially, using its own stock.
Operations and deliveries are back to normal at ExxonMobil's Fos sur Mer, where staff have been joining the strike on and off. There has been no strike action at ExxonMobil's Gravenchon refinery in Normandy, the company said.
Francis Duseux, the president of industry body UFIP, said in an interview broadcast on France Info radio that due to problems at some terminals, strategic stocks have been used for the past week, but only to a small degree.
However, according to union sources, strategic stocks have been used extensively to avoid motor fuel shortages.
Meanwhile, shipping sources said towage companies at the country's ports remain on strike for the moment until December 26, with no tug assistance available.
Port and dock workers have also been asked to stop work for a few hours on December 30, organize protests on January 6 and 7 at the ports of Dunkirk, Le Havre, Rouen, St Nazaire, La Rochelle, Bordeaux and Marseille, and to halt operations for 24 hours on January 9.
French ports have been working intermittently since the start of the industrial actions, with loadings disrupted on several occasions. As a result, tankers have faced delays at the Fluxel-operated Fos and Lavera oil terminals in the Mediterranean and Le Havre in the north.
As MRC informed before, ExxonMobil's cracker at Notre Dame de Gravenchon, France, had an "unexpected stoppage" on Friday, 6 December, following a technical failure this October. Thus, an electric fire Saturday morning, 19 October, 2019, on the ExxonMobil facilities in Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon (Seine Maritime) resulted in a plume of smoke, below the regulatory thresholds, which could remain visible for several days.
Besides, ExxonMobil halted polyethylene (PE) production at its site in Notre Dame de Gravenchon, France, last week due to commercial reasons, without providing further details. The site houses 500,000 tons/year of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant, including metallocene linear low density polyethylene (MLLDPE). This plant resumed operations on 19 December 2019.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.
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