Gas stocks: France exceeds 90% filling for winter, but still fears being cold

Europe 1 with AFP 3:32 p.m., August 25, 2022

France had filled 90% of its gas stocks for the winter on Thursday morning, according to the European platform Aggregated Gas Storage Inventory (AGSI) and was on the right track to meet its objectives in order to face potential energy shortages this winter. related to the war in Ukraine.

Gazprom has stopped gas deliveries to several European countries

The government's objective is to fill the country's storage capacity with 100% natural gas by November, as the tap of Russian exports to Western countries that support Ukraine gradually dries up, and the gas prices in Europe are breaking records.

The price was moving at more than 300 euros per megawatt hour on Wednesday morning, at historic levels, more seen since the start of the Russian invasion.

The Russian giant Gazprom has since the start of the war in Ukraine stopped gas deliveries to several European countries and drastically reduced its deliveries to Europe in June via the Nord Stream gas pipeline.

In France, in detail, the stocks of Teréga, one of the two operators of the country's gas transmission network, were at 91.21% of their capacity, when those of Storengy, a subsidiary of Engie, were at 89.67%, according to the AGSI website.

100% stocks would be equivalent to more than 25% of the annual gas consumption in France.

Germany's strategic storage facilities are 81.07% full according to the AGSI site.

Besides France, only four European countries out of 27 are at more than 90%: Portugal (100%), Poland (99.56%), Sweden (90.8%) and Denmark (93.76%) . 

France considers itself in a more "favorable" situation than its neighbors

All countries filled their tanks more than 50%, the worst off being Latvia (55%) and Bulgaria (59%).

France, for which natural gas represented 15.8% of total energy consumption in 2020, considers itself to be in a more "favorable" situation than its neighbors.

It is counting on gas stocks filled to the maximum and on a new LNG terminal from next year to receive imports of liquefied gas from countries other than Russia.

The Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, had indicated during the summer that the government's objective was to fill the stocks to 100% "before November 1", while operators are usually obliged to fulfill these reserves to 85% by that date. 

The country now seems well ahead of this strategic objective.

Especially since "it is on the question of Russian gas that part of the growth in Europe will be played in the coming months" and the risk of recession, for his part affirmed Wednesday the Minister of the Economy Bruno The mayor. 

"Everything will depend on Vladimir Putin's decisions on gas," he said on France 5. "If he ever decides to cut gas for the EU and the euro zone, we are assessing the impact on growth , for France alone, to half a point of GDP, and probably more for other economies more dependent on Russian gas than us".