Strike Impacts Lube Output at Total's Gonfreville Refinery

A 72-hour strike at Total's Gonfreville refinery in northern France has halted production of base oils and reduced diesel output by about 10 percent, a CGT union official said on Tuesday.

The French oil firm is planning to shut one lubricant making unit at the 247,000 barrel per day refinery in Normandy so it can focus on higher-quality automotive base oils, union sources told Reuters last month.

A majority of the refinery's 135 base oils workers voted for the strike, which started on Monday, and all shift workers had downed tools, the official at the hardline CGT union said.

The halt in oils production also cut output by 10 percent at the distillate hydrocracker, the flagship diesel-making unit of the Gonfreville plant, where Total has invested more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) over the last three years.

"This strike is a first step to express our discontent. We are still negotiating with management," CGT union official Thierry Defresne told Reuters. "After a month of dialogue with management, we will consider whether to extend the strike to other units of the refinery in January."

The closure of the so-called Group I base oil unit, which produces material for lubricants, will affect some 50 jobs, but employees will be transferred to other units on the site, where 1,700 employees work in total, union officials have said.

Group I is the lowest quality base oil, and can no longer be used for automotive lubricants in Europe, where margins are the highest. Tighter European environmental regulations mean group II and group III base oils, which produce lubricants with lower emissions, have taken over most of the non-industrial market.

Total makes a small amount of Group III base oils at Gonfreville, equivalent to about 10 percent of the plant's lubricants capacity.

The French company is considering a 17 million euro investment at its linear polyethylene unit to produce low-density metallocene polyethylene, a niche, lucrative plastic used in products such as diapers, according to management documents obtained by Reuters.

The CGT official said unions were working on a counter-project and will meet management again at a works council meeting at Gonfreville on Wednesday.

A spokesman for Total declined to comment.

Reporting by Michel Rose