French Fos-Lavera strike blocks 24 oil vessels-port

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Sep 2010

A French rolling port strike at the country's strategic Fos-Lavera oil hub near Marseille entered its fourth day on Thursday, blocking a total of 24 oil tankers, the port authority said. The strikers, who are protesting against a French pension bill and aim to secure job guarantees as part of a port reform, were blocking 9 crude oil tankers and 15 oil product vessels.
The French oil industry body (UFIP) said on Wednesday operations at seven European refineries were being "seriously threatened by the strike." [ID:nLDE68S2C9]
Other blocked vessels included 8 gas tankers and four chemicals product cargoes.
The port, with annual oil traffic of 64.2 million tonnes, supplies crude to six French refineries and two refineries in Switzerland and Germany, with a total output capacity of 900,000 barrels per day, according to Reuters estimates.
But the Miro refinery in Germany has an alternative crude oil supply, according to the UFIP.
The oil hub has been repeatedly hit by strikes in the past three years after the government decided to privatise unloading operations at the docks previously run by the state.
A 12-day strike in Dec. 2008 threatened to shut several refineries dependent on France's biggest oil port.

Source: Reuters