Filled with” black gold “, impressive tankers are waiting in the harbor of Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) to unload their cargo. If the port of southern France is “Far from full”, the lack of storage places and the reduction of personnel linked to containment complicate the equation, the AFP said.
Twenty ships, more than half of which are tankers, are waiting on a harbor in the Gulf of Fos-sur-Mer, one of the three largest oil ports in the world. Each year, up to 45 million tonnes of liquid bulk, including crude or refined hydrocarbons, pass through here.
“We are far below our mooring capacity which is around 45 ships and therefore far from saturation”, says the commander of the port Amaury de Maupeou, charged with his team, reduced in period of confinement, to welcome the ships of the globe 24 hours a day in this very competitive sector.
“Oil traffic is constant, assures the officer. The only difference is related to the sanitary standards taken by the dockside operators: there is a little more waiting for the tankers ”.
Thousands of jobs “at risk”
And for good reason: delicate steps such as connecting the behemoth tanks to pipelines must be carried out while respecting the sanitary safety distances linked to the coronavirus epidemic. “We operate in a reduced fashion, with weaker capacities”, regrets with AFP Franck Demay, chairman of the board of directors of Fluxel, operator of the port’s oil terminals.
He who is also a member of the French Union of Petroleum Industries (Ufip) expects from the government “More flexibility” in the sanitary measures in order to be able to continue the activity, explaining that it is “The industrial tool of the South of France with its thousands of jobs which is in danger”.
“Without petroleum, the petrochemical sector which manufactures plastic packaging for health products or even gowns can no longer function”, defends the manufacturer.
Exhausted storage capacities
But, in addition to the slowdown linked to a reduced workforce, the fall in oil consumption has also considerably complicated the pursuit of activity, with full depots and ships that have to wait for a place of storage. , which increases costs.
“Ships ordered for several weeks have no other solution than waiting to be able to unload their cargo in the storage areas”, explains to AFP Fabien Poure, managing director of SPSE, a transport and storage company for liquid hydrocarbons, the heavyweight in the sector.
Investors want to take advantage of the context
“Traders around the world have rushed to rent storage space, explains Franck Demay. It’s an incredible crisis, we no longer know where to put the stock, everything has been rented for the medium and long term “.
A rush which is explained by the “Contango” : The prices of oil purchase contracts for next month delivery have become cheaper than those on a more distant horizon. Investors, several experts say, hastened to take advantage of the situation to stock up on supplies, hoping to resell their oil at a better price when activity resumes.
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