The TotalEnergies refinery, a labyrinth of more than 40,000 kilometers (25,000 miles) of pipes near the mouth of the Seine where it pours into the Channel, is operating at full capacity to keep vehicles and airplanes in motion.
Over the constant buzz of the equipment, Elise Thomazo, the chief of the refinery’s technical section, pauses halfway up a 40-meter-tall metal tower to describe how the plant operates.
“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.
Bitumen and other “heaviest” or densest materials are stored in black ones, along with crude oil.
The “lightest” materials, like gasoline, are stored in reservoirs with the lightest color.
The refinery has long been focused on producing a significant amount of diesel and jet fuel, which up until recently was widely used for both trucks and vehicles in France.
However, since the Middle East conflict has cut off a significant portion of the global supply of crude oil as well as processed products like diesel and jet fuel, it is currently attempting to maximize that production as much as possible.
Just half of the diesel used in France is produced there.
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