Céline Regnard

 

From the late 19^th century up until the 1960's, Marseille was the bridgehead of the French Colonial Empire, the “Gateway to the East” as glorified in Puvis de Chavannes' painting. Included in France's protectionist system as from 1892, trade between the colonies and the mother-country was not subject to any customs duty, which gave it a huge advantage over foreign products which had to pay duty. In fact, France imported many raw materials from its empire, including Algeria, and most of these either passed through Marseille or were transformed there – industrially processing raw products became the cornerstone of the “Marseilles system”. Importing oil was one part of this traffic, though not at first a fundamental one. France has always been dependent on imports for energy: from the Second Empire through to the Second World War, more than a third of its needs were guaranteed by external sources. During the inter-war period oil traffic grew, using the new pools in the étang de Berre (Berre, la Mède, Lavéra) which had been attached to the port of Marseille since 1919. But it was really after 1945 that this traffic took off. At the end of 2^nd World War restarting the economy, the advances in industry, transport and the spread of motorised vehicles increased France's energy needs. The search for new sources of supply went with a policy of developing the mining sector. While the closure of the Suez Canal made things more difficult, the discovery in 1956 of deposits of gas and oil in the Algerian Sahara offered new prospects for development. 10 billion francs were invested in their operations from 1955 to 1964. The traffic in oil, on which growth in the 1950s depended, went from 2.2 million tonnes to 13 million tonnes in France between 1938 and 1954.

For Marseille's economy the issue was crucial: oil was the raw material on which new processing industry depended. In 1949 the port of Lavera was commissioned, accessible to ships of 80,000 tons. In 1962 a large European network of oil pipelines opened, followed in 1968 by a pipeline for refined products, with its main terminals around Berre. In the mid-1960's a deep water port at Fos-sur-Mer was dug out and built. Capable of handling supertankers of 300,000 tons or more, it was inaugurated in 1968. Finally, the package was completed by building a gas terminal for Gaz de France to process liquid natural gas imported from Algeria. From then on the Marseille region became France's principal platform for receiving crude oil and liquid gas, with all the oil multinationals such as Shell, Total, British Petroleum and Esso based there. In Algiers as well the work was enormous. In 1830 the port covered an area of ​​3 hectares. To this were gradually added many pools, a seaport, railways, docks and warehouses. Modern, it had the advantage of a roll-on roll-off system for rapid handling.

Oil now played a fundamental role in the economy of both countries and both ports. In 1948 oil accounted for 49% of Marseille's imports and 29% of its exports. Over the next 30 years oil became the prime sector, the lifeline of a local economy in decline: in 1974 the figures were 90% and 68%. But Algeria's independence marked the end of the French colonial empire and a turning point for Marseille: oil and gas remained the main areas of ​​activity, while everything else declined. However, in the post-colonial context trade was more delicate, and after 1962 oil played a considerable role in the complex relations between France and Algeria. Today, Algeria is just one trading partner among others: one third of France's supply of crude oil comes from countries of the former USSR.

 

Bibliography:

Nouschi André, La France et le pétrole, Paris, Picard, 2001

Florence Pizzorni et Abderrahmane Moussaoui, Parlez-moi d’Alger. Marseille-Alger au miroir des mémoires. Catalogue de l’exposition du Fort-Saint-Jean du 7 novembre 2003 au 15 mars 2004, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2003.

Xavier Daumalin, Du sel au pétrole : l’industrie chimique de Marseille – Berre au XIXe siècle, Marseille, Tacussel, 2003

Xavier Daumalin, Nicole Girard, Olivier Raveux (dir.) Du savon à la puce. L’industrie marseillaise du XVIIe siècle à nos jours, Jeanne Laffitte, 2003