Total's restructure in France will close La Mède refinery

The company's plan for refining in France will also see investments in biofuels and desulphurisation

Total’s long-awaited restructuring plan for its refining operations in France will see crude processing end at one of its five facilities, while there will be investments in biofuels and desulphurisation. The company says the plan, together with a cut in capacity at its UK refinery, will fulfil the firm’s 2012 target of reducing its European refining capacity by 20%. Total is to cease processing crude at its 153,000 barrels a day (b/d) La Mède refinery, in the south, at the end of 2016, reducing its capacity in the country to 676,000 b/d. The firm says La Mède, together with its 219,000 b/d Donges refinery in western France, is “struggling and structurally loss-making”. But its other three r