PARIS (Reuters) – Striking workers blocked delivery trucks carrying oil products, including petrol, from leaving the ExxonMobil Chemical France’s Port-Jerome-Gravenchon refinery in northern France on Friday.
Some 200 workers are on strike, an FNME-CGT union member said, and the action will continue until management returns to the negotiations over ExxonMobil Chemical France’s plans to close part of the refinery.
“Due to the blockade surrounding the terminals, some trucks cannot load products from the Gravenchon refinery terminal. However, pipeline and boat loadings are not impacted,” an ExxonMobil spokesperson said.
Last month, ExxonMobil Chemical France said it would shut down the steam cracker and close chemical production at Gravenchon this year, adding that the site has lost more than 500 million euros ($534.40 million) since 2018 and remains uncompetitive.
The ExxonMobil spokesperson said that some of the chemical manufacturing units, including the steam cracker, were shuttered due to the strike.
“We regret that this may impact our ability to supply certain products,” the ExxonMobil spokesperson said, adding that units that could be impacted make polyethylene, polypropylene and resins.
($1 = 0.9356 euros)
(Reporting by Forrest Crellin. Editing by Jane Merriman)
