France's Total Refineries Operating at Normal Rates After Strike

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Total SA's (NYSE:TOT) (Paris, France) refineries are operating at normal rates after a labour strike that affected most of the refineries that Total owns and operates in France.

Created in 1920, Total SA is one of the largest oil, natural gas and specialty chemicals companies in the world. The company operates 11 refineries in Western Europe, and owns six refineries in France: the 364,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Gonfreville Refinery in Haut-Normandie; the 140,000-BBL/d Flandres Refinery in Bouches-du-Rhônes; the 100,000-BBL/d Grandpuits Refinery in Ile-de-France; the 160,000-BBL/d Provence Refinery in Provence; the 117,000-BBL/d Feyzin Refinery in Rhône-Alpes; and the 230,000-BBL/d Donges Refinery in La Loire.

On Tuesday, September 7, four of Total's six French refineries cut their production to minimal rates in conjunction with a national labour strike protesting a government plan to increase retirement age to 67 years from 65.

The Gonfreville Refinery and the Provence Refinery recovered their normal production levels by Tuesday evening. The Grandpuits Refinery and the Donges Refinery were at normal production rates by Thursday, September 9.

The Feyzin and Flandres refineries did not participate in the strike. The Flandres refinery has been offline since September 12, 2009, as a consequence of declining market conditions.

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