French oil strike spreads

French drivers rushed to fill their tanks Sunday after striking workers at oil giant Total raised the threat of petrol shortages as families hit the road for the mid-term school holidays.

An AFP reporter saw one station in the western town of Rennes closed because it had run out of petrol and dozens of vehicles massing at another, seeking urgently to fill their tanks.

City centre filling stations were also busier than usual in Toulouse, in the south, where at least one ran out of diesel. One driver told AFP he was filling up "as a precaution" to avoid "getting stranded because of the strike."

Total's management said Friday it had started gradually halting refining operations after unions announced an open-ended stoppage at all of its six French refineries, in protest at the closure of a plant in Dunkirk.

"We strongly fear that next week, fuel shortages will be on the agenda," CGT union representative Charles Foulard told reporters ahead of talks on Sunday with management over the five-day old strike.

Hours later, he walked out of the talks. "The negotiations have broken down. We have nothing but verbal proposals and no commitments from the management," he said.

Refining at Dunkirk has been halted by a strike that started last month. Unions said another refinery in Donges, western France could shut down from Monday and another at Grandpuits, near Paris from Tuesday.

Total supplies about half of France's filling stations. It insisted there was no immediate risk of shortages, while the French Petroleum Industry Union said the country's depots had up to three weeks' worth of fuel.

But the leader of the CGT, Bernard Thibault, warned: "A country like France does not have the capacity and the reserves to live for long with its refineries shut down," in comments on television station France 2.

The energy giant sparked the protest when it announced last month that it was studying a permanent closure of a refinery in Dunkirk, which employs 370 people directly and 450 sub-contractors.

Total insists no jobs will be cut and it will not close any other refineries. It has come under government pressure to guarantee jobs after President Nicolas Sarkozy said that fighting unemployment was a top priority.

Industry Minister Christian Estrosi met with Total's chief executive Christophe de Margerie and said afterwards that Total was "committed to doing everything" to keep the Dunkirk site open even if it stopped refining.

The company says it is working to adapt to falling demand due to the economic crisis and a shift towards cleaner energy.

"Things have changed drastically in this business," Margerie said in an interview in the weekly Journal du Dimanche.

Total posted a 44-percent year-on-year drop in profits in 2009 due to falling prices but vowed to keep investing, eyeing partnerships with China and gas projects in Iran. Profits fell to 7.8 billion euros (10.9 billion dollars).

"We are working to make our sites adapted to the change in demand," Margerie said. "This resource must remain competitive in the long term."