French gas storage, currently 80% full, will be full on November 1, Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher said on Wednesday, while admitting that these reserves may not be sufficient if the winter is rigorous. “We are now at 80% filling of our strategic gas stocks, we are ahead of our objectives, this means that we will fill 100% before November 1, which was our objective”, has said Ms. Pannier-Runacher on CNews on Wednesday.
Tanks filled to 100% do not guarantee a winter without a gas cut.
She called “collectively” all French people, but especially “the biggest players” to “make sure to reduce their consumption of gas and electricity”, because “the two systems are linked”. “The major players, administrations, businesses must reduce their consumption,” insisted the minister. “The 19 degree setpoint is not respected everywhere,” lamented the minister, recalling that the state alone manages “90 million square meters” which must be heated “correctly”.
On RMC later in the morning, she admitted that 100% filled tanks do not guarantee a winter without a gas cut: “It’s not that simple”. “You can have a particularly severe cold day, and then we cannot pump – for pipe size reasons – all the gas that has been made,” she explained.
“We are counting on solidarity, particularly from Germany, to import electricity”
The Minister recalled and explained the European solidarity mechanisms at work for sharing access to energy sources. “We are counting on solidarity, particularly from Germany, to import electricity,” she said, referring to the production problems encountered by French nuclear power plants. “And we must be in support of Germany for the gas that we import into our LNG terminals. We have four of them currently at work,” she recalled.
She also defended the European principle of importing Azerbaijani gas to compensate for the absence of Russian gas, despite the controversies over human rights in this country. Agnès Pannier-Runacher also described as “irresponsible” the remarks of the National Rally candidate for the presidential election Marine Le Pen asking to end the sanctions against Russia in order to be able to benefit again from the gas coming from this country.
“The political personality who prides himself on being the most patriotic is also the first to sell our republic for a dish of lentils,” said the minister. “Russian gas is supplied to us in ever-decreasing proportions. Today we must be at 20% of what we imported last year and in previous years,” she recalled. Hence the “issue” which is to “replace Russian gas with gas of different origin”: “Norway, Canada, United States and Algeria via Spain”.