President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered French oil giant Total not to shut its refineries Tuesday, intervening weeks ahead of regional elections, despite his own efforts to reduce fuel consumption.
Sarkozy summoned Total's chief executive Christophe de Margerie as the company sat down with unions to seek a way out of an open-ended strike by refinery workers that has caused fuel pumps in France to run dry.
Sarkozy's government has previously vaunted his plans to take the lead in European efforts to cut harmful gas emissions, by introducing a "carbon tax" that would reward use of cleaner fuels.
But it has also pressured Total, ranked as the sixth biggest oil company in the world by sales, to safeguard jobs at its refineries even as oil majors are seeking to shift away from costly and polluting refining operations.
"The government wants Total to make commitments not to close its refining operations in the coming years," government spokesman Luc Chatel told reporters after Sarkozy met Margerie on Tuesday.
"That's what the president demanded and that's what they talked about," he said, after Sarkozy briefed ministers on his meeting.
The French economic daily La Tribune on Tuesday said the government was pressuring the company to safeguard refinery jobs ahead of the elections despite encouraging people to reduce their fuel consumption.
"If petrol is no longer selling in France it is because everything has been done to reduce consumption in the name of ecology," the paper said.
Drivers have been rushing to fill up their tanks this week to avoid running out during the mid-term school holiday. Total said that 249 of its 2,600 Elf service stations in France had run out of at least one fuel product.
Sarkozy is bracing for tough elections for regional councils next month, seen as a gauge of popularity for a president slipping in the opinion polls.
Unions have warned fuel could run short in days unless management meets their demands to keep its refineries going, especially one in Dunkirk, northwestern France, which it has not ruled out closing.
Charles Foulard, representing the CGT union at talks with management, told reporters that Total had promised not to close any other refineries over the next five years.
But another union official, who asked not to be named, said this promise did not apply to the Dunkirk site at the heart of the current dispute. Oil majors worldwide are facing cuts and restructuring.
"The global refining situation today is not good," said Colette Lewiner, an energy expert at the French global consultancy Cap Gemini. "At all the oil majors, refining activities are losing money."
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