Stocks

SAGESS storage contracts cover all French territory. SAGESS does not own storage tanks except for one plant in Chasseneuil (Vienne). The storage strategy prioritizes renting facilities from oil operators and subcontracting warehousing activities. SAGESS rents from oil operators or refiners. On the other hand, SAGESS owns stocks which are at the exclusive disposal of the government. It builds up its stocks by purchasing crude oil or end products within a 6-month purchase plan decided by the CPSSP board. There is no anticipated purchases. Purchases are made through a tendering process and the amount of stocks held by SAGESS today is 14.6 million m3 – 11.2 million tonnes EQPF (equivalent end products: a ton of crude is kept in stock at up to 0.8 tonnes of end products equivalent). SAGESS products are often physically stocked in the storage facilities of oil distributors which facilitates rotation.

Reciprocity between SAGESS and oil operators

SAGESS defines the contractual, technical and financial conditions binding the oil operators with whom it stores oil stocks:

• to pay a storage fee according to certain type of product,
• to pay for delivery services,
• to carry out audits and controls,
• to guarantee accurate operators information during times of an oil crisis,
• to take necessary measures if obligations are lifted in case of a force majeure.

Warehouse managers are bound:

• to ensure inventory services (arrival of products, handling and storage of products, administrative requirements,
• to guarantee the quantity of stock,
• to guarantee that the quality of the products are always reliable and marketable,
• to manage stock movements,
• to guarantee that the integrity of the stocks are not at risk.

Three types of storage facilities

SAGESS stores oil products in 120 sites, including 110 commercial plants (3 780 km3) and 8 refineries (3 850 km3). It also holds a major part of its reserves in the underground salt caverns of Manosque (23 caves / 6 460 km3), connected to Fos-Lavéra by a 130 km pipeline owned by SAGESS.

Commercial plants

• Characteristics:
  • Standardized facilities
  • Dense grid enabling faster availability and a good inventory rotation
  • Diverse storage capacities
• Types of stored products (by year-end 2011):
  • Crude: 9.6%
  • Distillates: 80.2%
  • Jet fuel: 10.2%

Refineries

• Characteristics:
  • Standardized facilities
  • Rotation frequency
  • Intermediate bases
• Types of stored products (by year-end 2011):
  • Crude: 32.0%
  • Gasoline: 18.7%
  • Distillates: 41.7%
  • Jet fuel: 7.6%

Underground facilities

• Characteristics:
  • Location of underground facilities
  • Segregated and standardized facilities
  • Guaranteed stable and sealed tanks
  • Low product rotation (impossible to stock bio products)
• Types of stored products (by year-end 2011):
  • Crude: 55.0%
  • Gasoline: 2.7%
  • Distillates: 42.3%

Manosque underground facility

The underground GEOSEL-Manosque storage facility (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), with an output capacity of 7.5 million m3, has been used since 1969 and includes over 20 caverns to stock crude oil, gasoil, heating oil, gasolines and naphta. SAGESS stores significant amounts of crude oil and products in this underground storage facility. Hydrocarbons are placed in massive salt-leached caverns. Each cavern, located at a depth of between 300 and 500 meters, is the size of the Eiffel Tower! In order to guarantee that, in the event of a crisis, oil reserves would be available in a timely manner, SAGESS built a 130 km pipeline from Manosque to the Fos-Lavéra zone. This pipeline makes it possible to double the flow of oil products in case of a supply shortage.

A major tool for supply availablity : SAGESS pipeline

The Manosque pipeline, begun in 2003 and operational since November 2007, responds to a government request to be able to provide reserves stocked in Manosque (currently more than 6 million m3) to high consumer areas (oil crossroads of Fos–Berre area: shipping terminals, refineries, pipelines of various networks) in less than 6 months in the event of a serious supply crisis. Owning this property is unique for a company like SAGESS, the only European stocking agency to have a pipeline. Passing through 25 communes and 3 departments, the SAGESS Fos-Manosque pipeline was entrusted to GEOSTOCK which operates the Manosque site and two other pipelines belonging to GEOSEL. The unit then works within an integrated logistic framework comprising the Manosque site, two GEOSEL pipelines, the SAGESS pipeline and additional sites of Rognac, Engrenier and Lavalduc (brine ponds).