PARIS—A strike by French refinery workers has choked fuel supplies nationwide, deepening the country’s energy crunch as temperatures drop and Europe grapples with a sharp cut in Russian natural-gas supplies.
The CGT, France’s far-left union, decided on Wednesday to continue a strike that has hobbled the country’s refining system. The union also moved to extend the strike to a refinery in Donges on the Atlantic coast owned by TotalEnergies SA. The government on Tuesday ordered employees at a fuel depot owned by
-SAF ES, a subsidiary of
Exxon Mobil Corp.
, to return to work, invoking rarely-used legal powers to end strikes.
The strikes have left more than 30% of French gas stations with supply shortages, officials said. Long lines have formed at stations that have gasoline and diesel and prices have risen sharply. France has released fuel from stockpiles onto the market and imported large quantities from refineries in Belgium, but those measures haven’t prevented the crisis from deepening.
“The impact of this social conflict, we realize, has become unbearable for too many French,”
Olivier Véran,
spokesman for the government of President
Emmanuel Macron,
said on Wednesday.
Trade union members and employees voted to continue their strike early Wednesday.
Photo:
lou benoist/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The strike adds to the energy woes of the French economy. Moscow’s decision to cut natural-gas deliveries because of Europe’s support for Ukraine has sent French gas and electricity prices soaring. More than half of France’s 56 nuclear reactors are offline because of corrosion discovered on pipes that cool the reactor cores and maintenance, raising fears the country could face electricity shortages this winter.
Mr. Macron’s government has capped gas and electricity prices for households, but businesses have been hit hard…
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