TotalEnergies refinery working full tilt to keep France fuelled

GONFREVILLE-L'ORCHER, France, April 26 (AFP): A maze of over 40,000 kilometres (25,000 miles) of pipes located at the mouth of the Seine where it spills into the Channel, the TotalEnergies refinery is working full throttle to keep planes flying and trucks running.

Halfway up a 40-metre-high metal tower, the head of the refinery's technical division, Elise Thomazo, stops to explain the workings of the facility over the continuous hum of the machinery.

"We're on the hydrocracking unit, a conversion unit that will allow us to maximize the production of diesel and kerosene for road and aviation fuels," she told AFP.

After crude oil is distilled, this set of towers replete with pumps and compressors is where they separate out different elements that allow the production of petrol, diesel and jet fuel, explained Adlene Terkmani, operations manager for this part of the facility.

Gigantic circular reservoirs surround the towers.

Black ones hold crude oil as well as the "heaviest" or densest products like bitumen.

The lightest colour reservoirs hold the "lightest" products such as petrol.

The refinery has long been geared towards producing a large proportion of jet fuel and diesel, which until recently was popular for cars in France as well as trucks.