“Russia uses energy, like it uses food, as a weapon of war“: during his interview on July 14, Emmanuel Macron was particularly offensive against Moscow. Faced with Caroline Roux and Anne-Claire Coudray, the Head of State thus tried to prepare the French for a return and a difficult winter due to the war in Ukraine.”Today we have to prepare for a scenario where we have to do without Russian gas entirely“, he warned.
>> Dependence on Russian gas: how do gas storage sites work in France?
The cut, since Monday, July 11, of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, officially for maintenance reasons, makes this scenario likely. To cope, the president is counting on the energy sobriety plan in preparation this summer, which aims to reduce energy consumption by 10% in two years. It is also based on gas reserves stored underground, which represent a quarter of France’s winter consumption. And Emmanuel Macron assures that they will be full in time: like all its European neighbors, France is hurrying to fill up with gas.
Currently, the sixteen French underground storage sites are 68% full. Last year at the same time, they were only at 56%. The President of the Republic wants the filling to be completed before the start of the consumption season, known in professional jargon as “gas winter”, which begins on November 1. But Russia’s goal is precisely to disrupt this European stockpiling program. To achieve this, Gazprom has started by cutting deliveries via Nord Stream 1, which arrives via Germany, by two-thirds since mid-June. And new screw tightening a few days ago: the Russian gas giant completely cut it for ten days in order to carry out “maintenance”.
But Russia is casting doubt on its reopening: this is why calls to save energy from now on are multiplying, such as the surprising joint forum of the major energy groups, EDF, Engie and TotalEnergies published at the end of June. Lowering gas and electricity consumption makes it possible to run gas-fired power stations in Europe less, and to direct molecules that have become rare towards storage sites, and avoid a disaster scenario.