The profits of the number one oil company in the US, ExxonMobil, are staggering. To take just the two most recent years, the American group has amassed a net profit of almost $92 billion (over €85 billion) between the beginning of 2022 and the end of 2023.

However, on the morning of Thursday, April 11, approximately 2,400 employees of its French subsidiaries were dismayed. The main shock came first: ExxonMobil Chemical France announced the closure of a large part of its petrochemical activities by the end of the year, citing "more than €500 million in losses since 2018." This will result in "the cutting of 677 jobs" by 2025: 647 at the Gravenchon site in Normandy, in the commune of Port-Jérôme-sur-Seine (Northern France), and 30 at the company's head office in the Paris region.

Another subsidiary made another announcement. While Esso intends to keep its refinery at this same Gravenchon site, which it has operated since 1933, it is preparing to sell its refinery at Fos-sur-Mer (southern France), as well as its depots at Toulouse and Villette-de-Vienne (southeastern France). As the 310 or so employees concerned have learned, a consortium is preparing to take control by the end of the year. The duo brings together Swiss commodities trading giant Trafigura – found guilty by the US courts in March in a corruption case in Brazil – and American refinery operator Entara. It promises to "maintain the current workforce."

From Normandy to Provence, the timing of the two announcements was purely "coincidental," according to an ExxonMobil spokesperson. However, on Thursday morning, the group called a special meeting of all employee representatives at a hotel in the La Défense district of western Paris. During this meeting, they shared the announcement and organized a central social and economic committee. By the end of the day, Esso's share price was up 7.8%.

On the ground, concern has especially spread to the Gravenchon platform and its almost 2,000 employees. "We still don't know how we're going to react," said Pierre-Antoine Auger, an elected member of Force Ouvrière, the majority union on site, quoted by Agence France-Presse, oscillating between "sadness" and "irritation." Germinal Lancelin, head of the CGT union at the site, summed it up as "a crushing blow" for everyone. The National Federation of Chemical Industries condemned "cuts justified solely by a rate of profit deemed too low." It is calling for strike action against this "massive destruction of industrial jobs by a billion-dollar oil company." The message is also addressed to subcontractors, given that the petrochemical business also provides indirect employment.

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