A company in the red 

At Yara, the world's number one nitrogen fertiliser, the explosion in the price of gas, multiplied by five following the conflict in Ukraine, is an immediate problem.

To manufacture its fertilizers for agriculture, the Norwegian group needs gas, which determines 80% of the price of ammonia.

"Today, we are economically unbalanced. This has forced the group to close factories, in particular that of Le Havre and another in Italy", explains Daniel Ménard, the boss of the Montoir de Bretagne factory, which usually produces 2,000 tons of fertilizer per day. 

The group has been looking for alternatives to gas to produce the ammonia for a long time, but this time, time is running out: "Clearly enough, if you come back in a month, I cannot guarantee that the plant will be in operation and will continue to produce fertilizers", concludes Daniel Ménard. 

Store but no more

In France, a rule obliges gas professionals to store 85% of the country's natural gas consumption, between spring and November 1.

These storages are huge underground reservoirs, geological pockets, into which gas is injected, arriving by pipeline or by boat.

In Lussagnet, in the Landes, at a depth of 500 meters, 25% of French reserves are under the feet of Michel Boche, director of infrastructure projects at Teréga.

This storage technique is "a tool that is absolutely strategic. It responds to the security of supply obviously, it makes it possible to respond to the seasonality of demand, to cushion price effects in winter when prices are more expensive" .

The Ukrainian crisis does not change anything in this operation, the injection campaign has begun, perhaps with additional pressure for these groups responsible for making reserves.

Michel Boche tempers: "Today, we have no particular urgency in the gas injection campaign. We cannot work in a hurry, fill our storage excessively quickly", continues -he.

Moreover, France is one of the European countries that stores the most, the 85% rule also inspires Brussels to impose the same on other countries.

One way to further secure the continent's gas reserves. 

LNG, immediate solution but bad for the climate? 

Store as much as possible, yes, but also diversify.

To do without Russian gas, the most obvious path is undoubtedly liquefied natural gas (LNG), 90% methane, transformed into a liquid state by cooling it to -161° C. In this form, it is 600 times less bulky than in a gaseous state and therefore transportable by boat from producing countries, such as the United States, Qatar, Australia, Algeria or Nigeria.

Less bulky but also five times more expensive than Russian gas.

And yet, Europe has little choice and therefore wants to import 50 billion cubic meters per year.

"There is not enough LNG today in the world to be able to replace the Russian gas that the European Union buys", objects Maxence Cordiez, engineer, author of "Energies - Fake or not?", 

Furthermore, the carbon footprint of LNG is high: a gas transformed, then transported by ships, potentially over long distances.

"LNG emits more greenhouse gases than gas pipelines, mainly CO2 and methane", explains Maxence Cordiez.

Finally, this form of gas requires large investments in the ports of arrival.

For now, Europe has a limited number of LNG terminals: Germany is going to build some urgently, France only has four.

Colossal and long-term investments in this fossil energy, a dependency which the world is nevertheless supposed to get rid of to fight against global warming.

Is biogas the solution? 

What if getting rid of Russian gas meant adopting another, greener gas?

Biogas, created from agricultural waste.

On the Evergaz methanisation site, near Angers, huge navy blue tanks absorb solid, liquid and pasty waste: slurry, manure, but also agricultural by-products, such as animal peels. onion or carrot pulp, digested for sixty days by bacteria.

It is this process that creates biogas. 

The European Commission plans to double the production of biomethane in one year.

But it won't happen in a day.

In France, it is a very small percentage of gas consumption in the country. 

“Compared to Russian gas, today we represent an alternative. By 2030, we will be able to replace the 17% in French supplies represented by Russian gas. And as of today, we are able to produce in self-sufficiency for 1.7 million households for their cooking and heating needs", enthuses Frédéric Flipo, Managing Director and Founder of Evergaz.

The Achilles' heel of biogas has until now been its price, 4 to 5 times higher than Russian gas.

The crisis has rebalanced things. 

It remains to develop biogas production capacities.

"Unfortunately, even if we have been campaigning for biogas and biomethane since 2008, we see that the crisis is an accelerator of awareness. This energy solution makes it possible to distribute a source of energy available in a perpetual way over the territories", boasts the CEO, while acknowledging that biogas "is not an immediate solution on the scale of France. On the other hand, at the local level, near our methanization sites, it is a solution now" .

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