French protests: 37% of operational staff at TotalEnergies’ refineries on strike

PARIS (Reuters) -Some 37% of operational staff at TotalEnergies’ refineries and depots were on strike on Saturday amid persisting protests in France against the government’s move to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.

French fuel supplies could be put at risk again next week following union calls to extend 10 days of strike action at refineries.

The company’s Feyzin refinery in the southeast was operating but output was reduced while fuel deliveries were prevented from leaving the company’s La Mede biorefinery in southern France, a company spokesperson said on Saturday.

The Donges refinery in the west has been offline due to a technical problem with an electricity transformer, he said.

At the company’s Normandy site in the north, operations and production at a large number of units were normal.

At oil major ExxonMobil’s Esso-branded Port Jerome-Gravenchon refinery in Normandy, fuel deliveries were halted for at least 24 hours, a representative of the hardline CGT labour union said.

(Reporting by Forrest Crellin and Dominique Vidalon, Gilles Guillaume, Editing by Gareth Jones and Frances Kerry)

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