Total : to suspend Donges refinery operations over COVID-19 impact

PARIS (Reuters) - French oil major Total said on Tuesday that operations at its Donges refinery would be halted over the coming months because the facility was losing money due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Union sources said the stoppage would take effect on Monday and could last for four months.

"The COVID crisis has a negative impact on oil products demand, which causes a very sharp deterioration of refinery margins," Total said.

"In this context, the Donges refinery is operating at a loss. We have decided to halt it (...) for the months to come, awaiting better economic conditions", it added.

It said the 450-million-euro ($534 million) modernisation of the 220,000 barrel-per-day facility, in Western France, was nonetheless ongoing.

($1 = 0.8421 euros)

(Reporting by Benjamin Mallet; Writing by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Pravin Char)