To protest against the pension reform, CGT Elengy has decided to shut down three LNG terminals in France for a week.
by IM with AFP
© Loic VENANCE / AFP
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Un blockage which could be costly. Three of the four LNG terminals available to France, which allow the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG), have been shut down for “seven days”, said Monday March 6 the CGT Elengy, which is protesting against the project. government pension reform.
The shutdown of these three terminals located in Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) for two of them, and in Saint-Nazaire (Montoir-de-Bretagne, Loire-Atlantique) for the third, blocks the gas supply to the GRTgaz distribution network, the unloading of LNG carriers and the filling of LNG tanks.
“The three Elengy LNG terminals are shut down”, confirmed to AFP the management of Elengy, a subsidiary of Engie, which indicates that this shutdown was carried out “under conditions of conventional security” and has, at this stage, “no impact” for the general public. The judgment was “voted by the general meeting of staff organized by the CGT” (majority), according to Mathieu Michel, elected to the CHSCT of Elengy.
The fourth terminal on strike for 48 hours
The fourth LNG terminal in France, operated in Dunkirk by the Belgian group Fluxys, will also go on strike for 48 hours from Tuesday morning, the management of this group told AFP, confirming information from the CGT according to which its speed has been reduced to the technical minimum.
With the war in Ukraine, LNG gradually replaced Russian gas, which arrived by pipeline, for France: in 2022, LNG terminals “represented 50% of French gas supply”, according to Elengy. And the share is expected to increase significantly in 2023.
LNG flows to France intensified in 2022 (+102%), “making the country a major entry point for LNG in Europe”, according to GRTgaz’s 2022 report.
READ ALSOPension reform: “The reflection on a universal system will continue” The other source of supply for the GRTgaz network, the storages, “are extremely in demand to fill the gap” and will be the subject of filter dams from Tuesday, according to the CGT.
“We are going to lower the flow a little bit on storage and ask for the outright withdrawal of the government’s reform project”, indicated Frédéric Ben, head of the gas sector at FNME-CGT.
READ ALSOPension reform: the opposition, yes; terror, no! Initially, gas-powered electricity generation plants could be affected, as could industrialists, “erasable” customers, that is to say able to obtain energy supplies in a different way, according to the CGT. .