The Total refinery at Feyzin / The Progress
For several months, the group warned that faced with the erosion of margins in refining in Europe, despite the rebound in the third quarter, a reorganization of its industrial park was inevitable.
On Friday, the head of French oil giant confirmed in an interview with the newspaper “Le Monde”. “In France, two of our five refineries to lose money, one heavily. We are thinking about business transformation for sustainable sites “.
But it ensures that the group will close “no industrial site” in France.
Besides overcapacity, the refining sector in France also suffers from inadequate production structure to the application: refineries produce too much petrol and not enough diesel fuel while it enjoys tax advantages and represents more than 80% of volumes sold in the countries of service stations. The result: since 2009, the number of refineries has increased from 12 to 8 in France.
Total intends therefore “capacity reductions,” according to the new boss of the refining and chemical branch, Philippe Sauquet, in an interview with Belgian newspaper L’Echo published on January 24, but did not specify where they will be realized.
In France, Total operates five refining sites, sometimes associated with petrochemical, employing nearly 3,900 people: Donges (Loire-Atlantique), Feyzin (Rhone), La Mede (Bouches-du-Rhône), Grandpuits (Seine et-Marne) and Montivilliers (Seine-Maritime).
Two of them “experiencing economic difficulties, Donges and La Mede”, said the director of the refinery at La Mede, François Bourrasse mid-December in the daily La Provence. This southeastern site loses “on average 100 million euros per year,” he stated.
Yet no question of talking about layoffs. “No one will be fired,” assured Patrick Pouyanné in an interview with the Financial Times on 21 January.
It must be said that the subject is potentially explosive, particularly in view of the long social conflict over the liquidation in 2013 of the Petroplus refinery in Petit-Couronne (Seine-Maritime), and recurrent controversies over huge profits of oil companies.
In recent years, the group has already restructured two sites in 2010 in Dunkirk (North) and 2013 (Carling, Moselle).
A Carling, Total has invested € 180 million to transform its petrochemicals platform in European center for the production of hydrocarbon resins, but with the key to the elimination of 210 jobs by 2016.
In 2010, the Flanders refinery, which employed 370 people closed but Total has converted the site into a training center for careers in petrochemicals, associated in particular with an oil depot and a technical assistance center. The set now represents 220 positions. Moreover, it has invested € 200 million in shares in favor of the local economy through an agreement with the state.
The former Group CEO, Christophe de Margerie, also promised at that time that the group would not close for another refinery in France before 2015.
AFP
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