More than 20% of service stations were still experiencing fuel supply difficulties in 25 departments on Wednesday despite a general improvement in the situation, the Paris region being particularly affected, according to official data analyzed by AFP.
While the strike of refinery employees is only affecting two TotalEnergies sites, in Normandy and in the Rhone region, some 14.5% of service stations nationwide were still short of at least one type of fuel (gasoline or diesel), compared with 21% on Monday, out of a sample of 9,900 stations that served them on 20 September, before the strike.
Nearly 10% of stations were not selling any fuel on Wednesday, a decline of 3 points since the beginning of the week, according to data available at 9:45 am Wednesday on the site prix carburants.gouv.fr transmitted by the stations, which did not necessarily sell all fuels in normal times.
The situation remains more tense in the Paris region, with 62% of stations affected by the lack of at least one fuel in the Hauts-de-Seine, 50% in Paris, 46% in Val-de-Marne and 42% in Seine-Saint-Denis.
It is in the Yonne department that the total rupture rate is the highest, with 34% of stations serving neither diesel nor gasoline.
In Paris, one third of the stations are completely dry, compared to 16% in the Hauts-de-Seine and one fifth in the other departments of the capital’s inner suburbs. In the Val-d’Oise, 21% of the stations did not sell any fuel.
The situation has improved in Puy-de-DĂ´me, the department most affected at the beginning of the week with 58% of stations in partial or total shortage and which is now in eighth place with 37% of stations lacking at least one fuel.
Other departments where fuel remains more difficult to find: Nièvre (39% of partial shortages, 24% of stations completely dry) and Yvelines, with 40% of stations lacking at least one fuel and 10% selling none.
The RhĂ´ne department is still in difficulty, with 16% of stations without any fuel and 31% affected by shortages, as is the Haute-Savoie department (9% and 29% respectively).
The situation is less tense in Bouches-du-RhĂ´ne, with Marseille, where 13% of stations are still experiencing difficulties.
Gasoline shortages are much more frequent than diesel shortages: 13% of gas stations that offered gasoline on September 20 were not selling it on Wednesday, compared to 7% for diesel.
At the peak of the strike, a little less than half of the stations in France ran out of fuel, with a third of them completely dry, according to several media estimates, including AFP.
