Access to the port of La Pallice temporarily closed after a suspected gas leak

The report of a suspicious odor caused concern this Tuesday at midday in the area of ​​the port of La Pallice in La Rochelle. In fact, they were mercaptans, gaseous sulfur compounds (called thiols) used to flavor town gas and generally prevent a gas leak. It was the Picoty company, a fuel distributor, which raised the alarm.

As a precaution, access to the port of La Pallice (RN 237 and RN 537) has been closed from the ring road. Employees of neighboring companies were confined while they carried out investigations. They did nothing, no gas leak was noted. The alert was lifted after an hour, and access to the ring road was reopened around 2 p.m.