MARTIGUES, France: Workers at France's Fos-Lavera oil hub in Marseille voted yesterday to end their strike on its 18th day as it threatened to shut down refineries and cause a regional fuel shortage, a trade union official said.
Workers unanimously backed a draft deal struck with Gaz de France overnight to end the walk-out and allow the 63 ships blocked by the strike, including 39 oil tankers, to resume deliveries.
"We will try to organise ourselves so that activities can resume as of this afternoon," union representative Pascal Galeote said after the vote. The strike could have closed nearly half of French refineries by next Wednesday and halted fuel supplies to millions of motorists in southeastern France by the end of next week, France's petroleum industry body UFIP said.
The deal signed by both sides on Friday night met one of the workers' key demands by stating that five port staff would be allowed to load and unload liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes at a GDF terminal due to start at the end of 2007.
Fos-Lavera is the world's third biggest port for oil products with 64.2 million tonnes moving through it annually. Union representatives had cautiously backed the deal but emphasised that it hinged on workers approving it at their meeting. The dispute started on March 14 to back demands that only port staff should be used to hook up liquefied natural gas cargoes at the new GDF terminal.
GDF had rejected the workers' demands, saying that only its own staff are qualified to do the work for safety reasons.
British chemical firm Ineos had said it planned to shut down its 207,000 barrels-per-day Lavera refinery today or tomorrow after having cut production by a third in the last few days. No comment was immediately available from Ineos on whether the shut down could now be averted.
Other refineries dependent on the hub, including Total's Feyzin and La Mede and Esso's Fos-sur-Mer, had started to trim output.
Their full closure would have slashed seven per cent of European refinery capacity or 1.10m barrels per day.
