One of the seven French refineries will change hands. Esso France, a subsidiary of the American oil giant ExxonMobil, announced this Thursday a plan to sell its Fos-sur-Mer refinery (Bouches-du-Rhône) to the company Rhône Énergies, as well as two fuel depots located in the south. from France. At the same time, ExxonMobil also announced a reduction in its activities at its Gravenchon site, in Port-Jérôme-sur-Seine, near Le Havre (Seine-Maritime).
These announcements could reshape the face of the oil chain in France. Where are the French refineries located today? What are the main French oil depots? Le Figaro takes stock.
France is home to seven refineries. An eighth is located in Martinique. In mainland France, the sites are mainly concentrated near two port areas: Marseille and the lower Seine, in the Seine-Maritime department. In Martinique, the refinery is based in the commune of Lamentin, and supplies the French departments of America (Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guyana).
Four refineries are managed by the French giant TotalÉnergies. One is operated by Petroineos, a joint venture of the English INEOS, the world’s third largest chemist, and the Chinese oil and gas group PetroChina. Two refineries are managed by Esso-ExxonMobil. In Martinique, the installation is run by the Société Anonyme de la Raffinerie des Antilles (SARA). Thus, TotalEnergies holds the majority of French refining capacity (around 54%), followed by Esso (29%), Petroineos (16%) then SARA (1%), according to figures from the Ministry of Ecological Transition. .
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In detail, the French refineries in mainland France are:
At the same time, some 200 fuel depots dot the area. Of these, 90 are intended for distribution only. “These are small deposits, with a capacity generally less than 1000 m3,” specifies the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
In terms of geographical distribution, the Normandy and PACA regions take the lion’s share, since they together represent 48% of national storage capacity. “To a lesser extent, the Aquitaine–Limousin–Poitou–Charentes and Nord-Pas-de-Calais–Picardie regions stand out by accumulating 18% of capacities due to the presence of significant import depots,” notes the ministry. of the ecological transition.
As a reminder, refineries and fuel depots were affected by a large-scale social movement in the fall of 2022, with employees in the oil sector demanding salary increases. At the height of the crisis, six refineries out of seven were blocked and many large deposits as well. This had a significant impact on fuel supplies, with nearly one in three service stations offering neither gasoline nor diesel at the worst of the shortage.
