by Mathieu Rosemain and Leigh Thomas
AIX-EN-PROVENCE, July 10 (Reuters) – France’s most energy-consuming companies are accelerating their emergency plans and converting their boilers to run on oil, lest another turn of the screw in Russian gas supplies won’t cause power cuts.
Gathered this weekend at the 22nd Economic Meetings in Aix-en-Provence, several leaders said they were preparing for possible supply failures.
“What we have done is we have converted our boilers, so that they are able to run on gas or oil and even that we can switch to coal if we need to,” said Florent Menegaux, chairman of tire giant Michelin, told Reuters.
“The objective is not to have to shut down a plant in the event of tension,” he added, pointing out that if a gas shortage in Europe was likely, oil would still be available as an alternative.
In a tire manufacturing plant, where material is transformed, it takes several days to stop and restart production, continued Florent Menegaux. It is therefore essential, he underlined, to maintain a stable energy supply on the site.
In June, Russia reduced the flow through the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, its main route to supply Western Europe, to 40% of its capacity. Politics and industry fear further cuts because of the crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, described by Moscow as a “special military operation.”
Across Europe, manufacturers are therefore turning to fuels that emit more CO2 than gas, the issue of security of supply and cost in a context of inflation having taken over from the exit from fossil fuels.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire warned business leaders gathered in Aix that it would be irresponsible not to prepare for shortages.
“I think the total disruption of gas supply from Russia is a real possibility (..) and we have to be prepared for this option,” he said.
STORM WARNING THIS WINTER
With around 17% of its supplies coming from Russia, France is less dependent on Russian gas than several of its neighbours, notably Germany.
But if the country derives the vast majority of its electricity from nuclear power, the French fleet is now aging and 29 of its 56 reactors are shut down for inspections or maintenance operations.
In this context, the government is looking, company by company, to determine which ones could be forced to reduce production to save energy, and which others cannot do without an uninterrupted flow.
“All companies are preparing for it (..) We really have a risk of shortage this winter”, declared for his part on condition of anonymity the president of a French industrial group on the sidelines of the Aix Meetings.
“All (industrial) companies are reopening their boilers, switching from gas supply to oil.”
At the end of June, the general manager of the car manufacturer Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, announced that he was studying all his options to deal with an energy shortage and not to become a fuse in the arbitrations that will be made between needs.
Among these options, he mentioned the possibility of producing his own energy within the group’s factories or of investing directly in energy production infrastructures.
In Aix, former Polish energy minister Michal Kurtyka, whose country still depends 70% on coal for its energy production, warned the leaders gathered that Europe was heading for a “real storm” this winter.
(Mathieu Rosemain, Gilles Guillaume for the French version)