Gas: Engie announces that the Russian Gazprom is further reducing its deliveries to France


Baptiste Morin with AFP
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1:57 p.m., August 30, 2022

Deliveries of Russian gas to Engie had already decreased considerably since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, recently falling to only 1.5 TWh per month, said in a press release Engie, which had mentioned at the end of July a share of Russian gas in its supplies. around 4%.

The Russian tap continues to dry up. The French energy company Engie announced on Tuesday that the Russian giant Gazprom had informed it of additional and immediate reductions in its gas deliveries to it “due to a disagreement between the parties on the application of contracts”. Deliveries of Russian gas to Engie had already dropped considerably since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, recently dropping to just 1.5 TWh per month, Engie said in a brief statement. This figure is to be related to supplies “total annual in Europe greater than 400 TWh”, adds the main gas supplier in France, of which the French State holds nearly 24%.

The group recalls that it has already put in place measures to be able to supply its customers even in the event of an interruption in Gazprom flows. “Engie had already secured the volumes necessary to ensure the supply of its customers and for its own needs”, it is indicated in the text.

Gas reserves do not provide half of our consumption

Last Thursday, France’s gas stocks exceeded the threshold of 90% filling for the winter, according to the European Aggregated Gas Storage Inventory (AGSI) platform and France is on track to meet its 100% target by November. Government spokesman Olivier Véran confirmed on franceinfo radio on Tuesday that the target would be achieved “by the end of the summer” but warned that this did not mean that France would have “enough gas to spend the winter if the Russians cut it and if we consumed a lot of it”.

But beware, the specialist in energy issues Thierry Bros alerts the microphone of Europe 1: our reserves do not even provide half of our gas consumption over a winter. “For a winter, we need stocks and supplies. Stocks represent about 40% of consumption during the winter and 60% comes from our direct supplies. If you are missing one of the two, you only have half of the equation,” he said.

Russian gas, 4% of French supplies

For the other half, Engie has already turned to other suppliers after increasing deliveries from Norway at the start of the war in Ukraine. Negotiations are now underway with the Algerian Sonatrach.

At the end of July, Engie had assured that it had significantly reduced its “financial and physical exposure to Russian gas”, which already represented only around 4% of its supplies, against 17% a year ago. “It is completely within the margin of the flexibility of our portfolios, so we are not at all worried,” said its general manager Catherine MacGregor at the time.





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