A broad alliance of unions has called for an eighth day of street protests across France since mid-January to contest President Emmanuel Macron's plans to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.

Several LNG ships heading to France have changed course to terminals in Britain, the Netherlands and Spain since the strike action started. The French terminals' closure for another week would significantly hamper France's ability to export gas to neighbouring countries.

Three LNG terminals operated by Engie subsidiary Elengy are expected to remain blocked until March 21, a company spokesperson said.

The Fluxys terminal in Dunkirk has also been affected by the strike, which is expected to last until Friday morning.

Among the refiners, 42% of operational staff were on strike at TotalEnergies' facilities for the eighth day this morning, a company spokesperson said. While deliveries of refined products were partially blocked, refining operations continued.

"We are providing the necessary shipments to keep our facilities in operation," the spokesperson added.

The Fos refinery in southern France operated by ExxonMobil's subsidiary Esso was also back on strike on Wednesday, a union representative told Reuters.

French power supply from nuclear, thermal and hydro power plants was also reduced by the strike, operator EDF data showed.

The country was importing about 3.3 gigawatts (GW) of electricity from neighbours at 0845 GMT, grid operator RTE data showed.

Reactor maintenance has also been blocked in recent days, with the disruptions affecting the Penly 1 reactor, where stress corrosion problems were recently detected.

The pension reform bill passes to a joint parliamentary committee where lawmakers from the lower and upper chambers will on Wednesday seek a compromise text before a final vote in both the Senate and National Assembly on Thursday.

(Reporting by Benjamin Mallet and Forrest Crellin; editing by Jason Neely and Tomasz Janowski)