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There's more pain for motorists in France, with petrol stations continuing to run dry across the country. The government says weeks of strikes against pension reforms are costing France up to 400 million euros daily.
For more than two weeks, drivers across France have struggled to fill their tanks. Nearly every refinery is shut or has reduced production, leading to a quarter of French petrol stations short or out of fuel.
Across the road, another gas station is closed as many call to fill up. Some of them have already waited for an hour.
One driver said, "Last time when I fued my car at 1:30 midnight, even at midnight, I still waited for half an hour."
"The strike has brought trouble to us people around Paris. We can do nothing. Just like this. This is France. " Said the driver.
As Europe’s second largest oil producer, France’s 11 refineries can process 1.84 million barrels of oil a day. But now more than 80 percent of oil-processing capacity halted in France. As the continuing strike has already pushed other European refiners' profits to a two year high, France’s neighbors are running refineries at full tilt for the moment to benefit from higher margins, French refiners are losing the most.
But the loss is not just in the refinery industry. Travel and tourism, one of France's flagship industries, is particularly exposed to the strikes. Air France has estimated the cost of one strike day at 5 million euros, bringing the total for the six national strike days since early September to 30 million Euros. For the whole economy, it is estimated that the lasting strikes are costing as much as 400 million euros a day.
The controversial pension reform aims to reduce the budget deficit and stimulate economy, but it seems that France has to do more to cover the losses than the reform is bringing.