Doris Leblond
OGJ Correspondent
PARIS, Mar. 21 -- The French oil companies' trade group Union Française des Industries Pétrolières (UFIP) has set up a working group to examine ways to reduce vulnerability of the four refineries on the French Riviera to the frequent labor action plaguing the ports of Fos, Lavera, and Etang de Berre refinery sites. The vulnerability extends to producers linked to the ports by a pipeline.
UFIP Delegate General Jean-Louis Schilansky, who announced the measure on a visit to Marseille, confirmed to Oil & Gas Journal that the CGT labor union's 2-week strike in October 2005 had cost the industry around �25 million with blockaded tankers and production shortfalls.
He told OGJ that it was not certain whether the working group could devise acceptable solutions to the problem. Results were scheduled for the summer of 2006.
He said UFIP is working on behalf not only of the four refineries in the region—Total's La Mède (158,000 b/cd), Shell's Etang de Berre (82,000 b/cd), Esso's Fos (119,000 b/cd), and Ineos's (formerly BP/Innovene) Lavéra (207,100 b/cd)—but also of Total's 118,000 b/cd Feyzin refinery in the Rhône valley, Switzerland's 60,000 b/cd Petroplus refinery, as well as refineries in southern Germany, which were all supplied by the pipeline carrying the oil delivered at the three ports.
