Fuel reserves dip in strike-hit France

Paris, May 25 

France today said it has dipped into its strategic oil reserves due to blockades at refineries as power workers threatened to join gathering protests against a labour law reform.

Police fired water cannon to disperse activists blocking an oil depot in the northeast, but six out of eight of France's refineries were still either at a standstill or had sharply reduced their output.

The head of the oil industry federation (Ufip) said that with a fifth of petrol pumps running dry, it had begun using strategic reserves.

"For the past two days, since there have been operational problems at the refineries and blockades of depots, we have...been using reserve supplies," Francis Duseux told French radio.

France has nearly four months of fuel reserves, but the announcement that they are already being tapped heaps further pressure on President Francois Hollande's deeply unpopular Socialist government. — AFP