Nov 22, 2007

No Impact on Physical Oil Market Yet By The French Port Strike

The brief closure of a key French port has had little impact, so far, on the physical oil market in Europe, traders and shippers said Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the Port Autonome de Marseille said Wednesday the port is now operating normally after a four-hour work stoppage from around 0900 to 1300 GMT Tuesday.

There are "no real problems" in the movement of tankers in and out of the oil and petrochemical terminal Fos-Lavera, within the port of Marseille, according to a shipping analyst in London.

And there is sufficient tonnage of crude available in the Mediterranean basin at present to offload Aframax vessels - those with a capacity of 80,000-120,000 metric tons - to tide over any brief disruption to supply, she said.

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