Normandy Refinery News

Shipments of refined products from French refinery and depots were blocked on Monday by a 13th day of strike action, though some refineries operated with a reduced flow, a company spokesperson said.The industrial action is part of a nationwide movement against pension system changes that lift the retirement age two years to 64. The changes were forced through parliament without a vote last week.There is an increasing expectation of diesel supply shortages in France and Europe as a result of the strike-caused outages…

Preliminary work got underway on Monday to restart three of Total's French oil refineries stopped as part of nationwide strikes against planned changes to employment laws, but workers were still on strike at the country's two main oil ports. Workers voted to end a strike at Grandpuits near Paris and preliminary work on resuming operations was underway there and at the Normandy refinery, as well as at the Feyzin refinery in the southern Rhone region, a Total spokesman said. Total operates five of the country's eight refineries. The Donges refinery on France's western coast was still blocked by about 30 members of the hardline CGT union, which is leading the campaign of stoppages and protests in the rail and energy sectors against the government's labour reforms.

A strong flow of container traffic at the Port of Le Havre in 2002 was responsible for a new record of 20 million metric tons (MT) in the category of general cargo for both import and export, an increase of more than 2 MT from 2001, according to the preliminary results for 2002 released by the port authority. Container tonnage increased to 16.8 MT, up 15.1 percent from 2001. Le Havre handled 1.72 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in 2002 – nearly 200,000 more than the previous year. Monthly container records were broken three times in March, July and November of 2002. “We are gratified that our growth rate for containers…