TotalEnergies' refinery deliveries were suspended today, electricity output reduced and train services disrupted as those sectors remained on strike after a nationwide day of industrial action brought record numbers of people onto the streets.
Around 1.28 million people participated in a sixth day of protests yesterday against a draft law that would see the pension age delayed by two years to 64.
This is a critical time for the labour union and the government since President Emmanuel Macron hopes parliament will adopt his plan before April.
Unions are trying to mount pressure on the government with strikes prolonged in some sectors, including at TotalEnergies oil refineries. It was the first time unions have decided on rolling strikes since the protest movement started at the end of January.
TotalEnergies said 54% of its 269 refinery workers on shift today were on strike.
Strikes continued at Esso's refineries in Fos in northern France, and in Port Jerome in southern France, blocking fuel deliveries, Germinal Lancelin, a representative for the CGT union, told Reuters.
Some 90% of Fos workers were on strike and 20% of those at Port Jerome, he said.
Access to TotalEnergies' refinery in Gonfreville l'Orcher, in northern France, was still blocked by union members at a motorway roundabout exit, with wood pallets and tires set on fire, according to observations by a Reuters photographer.
At the same roundabout, a main exit for parts of Le Havre port, trucks waited in line and were unable to proceed.
The four French LNG terminals and all of the gas storage facilities also remained blocked, FNME-CGT representative Fabrice Coudour said.
The disruptions to the LNG import terminals and cold weather across northwest Europe is affecting the European supply-demand balance, causing forward power prices to rebound, Rystad analyst Fabian Ronningen said.
CGT unionist Fabrice Coudour said that river shipping on the French part of the Rhine was also blocked by industrial action.
French power production was reduced by 11.2 gigawatts (GW) this morning as the strike affected nuclear, thermal and hydropower plants, operator EDF data showed. The supply reduction was equivalent to about 18% of total production.
Strikes have had a large impact on power demand, Kpler analyst Emeric de Vigan told Reuters, and reduced nuclear generation was mostly being replaced by coal or gas, emitting a lot more carbon dioxide.
However, a big drop in generation generally means the supply-demand balance is quite relaxed, he added.
Railway traffic continued to be affected by the strike, though to a lesser degree than yesterday, with one in three high-speed trains running, on average, and one in three local trains.
Transport will continue to be disrupted tomorrow and on Friday, Transport Minister Clement Beaune said, with about 20% fewer flights at Paris' main airport Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle, and a drop of 30% in Orly.
