In late 2008, at the height of the sub-prime crisis, France, Belgium and Luxembourg injected 6.4 billion euros into Dexia and pledged to guarantee its borrowings on the markets as its shares plunged during the worst credit crisis in generations.

Three months later, the oil giant said it was considering a move to shut down the facility, one of six refineries run by Total in France.

The Japanese buy more than 80 percent of the tuna fished in the Mediterranean, so imposing an international trade ban would vastly reduce fishing of the species.