By Forrest Crellin and Benjamin Mallet
PARIS (Reuters) – TotalEnergies’ refinery deliveries were suspended on Wednesday, electricity output reduced and train services disrupted as those sectors continued a strike aimed at blocking the government’s plan to delay the retirement age by two years to 64.
On Tuesday, a nationwide day of industrial action brought record numbers of people onto the streets against the policy change.
Garbage bags started piling up in Paris as rubbish collectors were among those who were on strike, while traffic on the French part of Rhine came to a standstill. In the Louvre museum, protesters briefly occupied the room where the Mona Lisa is displayed.
This is a critical time for the labour union and the government since President Emmanuel Macron hopes parliament will adopt the new pension law before April.
Access to TotalEnergies’ refinery in Gonfreville l’Orcher, in northern France, was blocked by unionists at a motorway roundabout exit, with wood pallets and tires set on fire, a Reuters photographer saw.
At the same roundabout, a main exit for parts of Le Havre port, trucks waited in line and were unable to proceed.
TotalEnergies said 54% of its 269 refinery workers on shift this Wednesday were on strike.
Strikes continued at Esso’s refineries in Fos in northern France, and in Port Jerome in southern France, blocking fuel deliveries, Germinal Lancelin, a representative for the CGT union, said.
But Olivier Gantois, the head of the French Association of Petroleum Industry (UFIP), said there was little impact on consumers for now.
“As long as the strike does not continue, there is no risk to the supply of petrol stations,” he told Reuters, adding: “Things are currently almost as usual for consumers … about 7% of service stations are out of stock for at least one product, which is very low.”
The four French LNG terminals and all of the gas storage facilities also remained blocked, FNME-CGT representative Fabrice Coudour said.
The disruptions to the LNG import terminals and cold weather across northwest Europe is affecting the European supply-demand balance, causing forward power prices to rebound, Rystad analyst Fabian Ronningen said.
TRANSPORT WOES
French power production was reduced by 11.2 gigawatts (GW) on Wednesday morning as the strike affected nuclear, thermal and hydropower plants, operator EDF data showed. The supply reduction was equivalent to about 18% of total production.
Strikes have had a large impact on power demand, Kpler analyst Emeric de Vigan told Reuters, and reduced nuclear generation was mostly being replaced by coal or gas, emitting a lot more carbon dioxide.
   However, a big drop in generation generally means the supply-demand balance is quite relaxed, he added.
Railway traffic continued to be affected by the strike, though to a lesser degree than on Tuesday, with one in three high-speed trains running, on average, and one in three local trains.
Transport will continue to be disrupted on Thursday and Friday, Transport Minister Clement Beaune said, with about 20% fewer flights at Paris’ main airport Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle, and a drop of 30% in Orly.
Senators are set to continue to debate the pension bill on Wednesday. The next nationwide day of strikes and protests is set for Saturday.
Macron’s centrist alliance does not have an absolute majority in parliament. His government hopes to get the support of the conservative Les Republicains but may still have to use special constitutional powers to bypass the lower house.
(Reporting by Forrest Crellin, Benjamin Mallet, Antony Paone, Benoit Van Overstraeten, Pascal Rossignol, Matthieu Protard, Elizabeth Pineau; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
