French strikers have cut operations at a BP refinery and may force its closure if the dispute is not resolved by Wednesday, the oil giant said on Monday.
As fears grow over global fuel supplies after the US hurricances' assault on oil refineries, strikers have blockaded France's Mediterranean energy hub and also closed its biggest refinery, Total's Gonfreville plant in the north.
One of two separate strikes a week ago completely shut the 328,000 barrel per day (bpd) Total refinery in Normandy, over a wage dispute. Workers, who say talks were blocked, voted on Monday to extend the strike to Friday.
A second strike, sparked off by a protest over the privatisation of a ferry company, continues to block tankers from loading and discharging oil from the Fos-Lavera Mediterranean hub, home to a cluster of refineries amounting to more than 600,000 bpd capacity.
Fos-Lavera is a major source of oil and gas imports as well as refined products exports to the region, West Africa and the United States.
A company spokeswoman said BP subsidiary Innovene cut runs at the 220,000 bpd Lavera plant on Saturday, and could completely shut the whole plant down by Wednesday if the strike continues past a general strike in France on Tuesday.
"Effectively, runs have been reduced since Saturday. It could shut down completely if the strike continues after Tuesday," said an Innovene spokeswoman.
She declined to specify how much production was affected as there were different units which had reduced rates.
A spokesman at the UFIP oil industry body estimated the Lavera plant's runs could be reduced by as much as 25 to 30 percent.
He said the dockers were likely to extend their strike at least until the October 4 strike against the government's economic reforms. The general strike is already threatening French refining capacity of just below 2 million bpd, with a call by the main unions to cut running rates but not shut down Total's refineries of over a million bpd. The CGT union said workers at other oil firms would also hold protests on Tuesday but not aim to cut refinery production.
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