Tankers form a queue.

Back in 2000 when Britain reeled under the shock of a fuel crisis, cars and lorries queued for hours at fuel stations short on supplies - today, off the coast of France seventy odd tankers queue patiently around Marseilles while France is gripped in the middle of industrial action - about pensions.

Almost every vessel shown at anchor is a tanker waiting to discharge oil of some sort into Marseilles.