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By Bloomberg

Total SA, Europe’s biggest refiner, said it will halt crude oil refining at La Mede in the south of France next year and convert it into a biofuels plant.

Total will invest 200 million euros ($213 million) to convert La Mede into a refinery capable of processing 500,000 metric tons a year of biofuel, the company said in an e-mailed statement Thursday. The plant is currently making “heavy losses” and will stop processing crude oil at the end of 2016, it said. The company will also invest 400 million euros upgrading its Donges refinery on the Atlantic coast.

“The plan that we are presenting today offers sustainable solutions for the Donges and La Mede refineries,” Total Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne said in the statement. “It gives both facilities a future and strengthens Total’s refining base in France.”

Total plans to cut its European refining capacity by about a fifth from 2011 to 2017. The company clashed with its workers and the French government when it shut the Dunkirk plant in 2010. Strikes protesting the move led to nationwide fuel shortages and forced the company to guarantee no more refinery shutdowns in France for five years.

Total will maintain some petroleum-product refining operations at La Mede, it said. The conversion plan will lead to 178 job cuts, the CFDT union said in an e-mailed statement. The facility currently employs 430 people, according to the union.

At the Donges refinery, Total plans to construct a desulfurization unit that will allow production of more fuels that meet Europe Union specifications, according to the statement. The company said it is also in talks with the French government and local communities about rerouting a rail line that runs near the plant.

The Donges refinery can process 219,000 barrels a day of crude while La Mede’s capacity is 153,000 barrels a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.