In the United Kingdom, it was the leak of a confidential report from the oil company British Petroleum to the government that set the barrel on fire.
Made public last week, the document reported the closure of a few dozen service stations for lack of fuel.
Enough to cause a rush of the British to their nearest pump in recent days, and high tensions between motorists in endless queues.
Read also Gasoline shortage in the United Kingdom: the government calls on the army to be ready
What cause for good the general shortage of gasoline that the population feared so much to see happen.
A relatively worrying situation with a risk of paralysis of society and the British economy, which raises questions on the continent.
Could France experience a similar situation in the coming weeks, in addition to the many shortages looming at the end of the year?
British Contest of Circumstances
The fuel shortage in the UK is linked to a combination of specific circumstances in the country.
“The British situation is very exceptional. First, there is a psychological dimension since the rush to service stations has amplified the shortage which was only marginal, ”
observes the professor at IFP and consultant Jean-Pierre Favenec. For the moment, the French do not have this kind of fear and the subject of a lack of fuel does not enter the public debate.
But the British fears of a shortage were by no means unfounded.
Certainly, oil remains widely available in the world and local refineries are full.
But the country's logistics chain suffers from labor shortages, with 100,000 driver positions unfilled.
"With the Brexit which complicates the visas and the successive confinements, 20,000 foreign truck drivers have returned to their countries of origin, in particular the countries of Eastern Europe"
, explains Jean-Alain Andrivon, economist specializing in the United Kingdom at Rexecode.
Service stations are now struggling to get gasoline delivered due to the lack of tanker drivers.
99% of French pumps well supplied
The French oil industry does not experience comparable shortages of truck drivers.
"We have no tension in the supply of service stations and the lack of drivers,"
says one at Total Energies.
“More than 99% of service stations are well supplied with gasoline and diesel,
confirms the Ministry of Ecological Transition, in charge of Energy, which is reassuring about the specter of a fuel shortage. An observation shared by the Union Française des Industries Pétrolières which praises the "
robustness and flexibility of French oil logistics via shipments by sea, pipelines and trucks".
And in the event of difficulty, France can mobilize its strategic stocks led by the State.
That is to say a reserve of 90 days of consumption, distributed over all of the territory's oil depots.
"These strategic stocks are like nuclear weapons,"
says UFIP President Olivier Gantois.
They reassure everyone but we never use them
since France has not experienced a major shortage in gasoline for many years, beyond occasional shortages ”.
Often due to strikes by truckers or blocking of depots as during the Yellow Vest protests in 2018.
To read also Nicolas Bouzou: "The shortages of raw materials and labor weigh on the recovery"
On the other side of the Channel, the British army is already requisitioned to provide its own drivers and tankers and Boris Johnson intends to grant 10,500 temporary visas to foreign workers.
UK economist Jean Alain Andrivon therefore does not believe in a lasting fuel shortage in the UK and France:
“The situation should recover in the coming days in the UK and will have no impact elsewhere. , neither on the price of gasoline, nor on its availability ”.
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