Is France really the leading European importer of Russian gas?

The Russian government agency RIA Novosti revealed on Thursday that France became the leading European importer of Russian gas in February.

France became the leading European importer of Russian gas in February, according to information from the Russian government agency RIA Novosti published Thursday April 18. The news is surprising, given the French government’s stated desire to disengage from its dependence on Russian gas and given the relations between Paris and Moscow, which have been particularly bad in recent weeks.

Russian liquefied natural gas via contracts signed by Total

If France became the leading European importer of Russian gas last February, over a month, it is not because it started consuming more. This is because Hungary, the usual first buyer, consumed less. Viktor Orban’s regime, which maintains a certain proximity to Moscow, continues to buy Russian gas but his country, which imports it by pipeline, needed it less in February.

France almost no longer imports Russian gas via pipeline but still buys LNG, Russian liquefied natural gas. This is particularly due to the contracts signed by Total before the war. This is also due to the difficulty of completely disengaging from the Russian market. That said, all this was known: we knew it but in the current context of Franco-Russian relations, the government media seized on this very symbolic information. France is an enemy of Russia but it still buys its gas.

The share of Russian gas is decreasing in Europe, but less quickly in France

To a certain extent, France and Europe remain dependent on Russian gas. But what the Russian press doesn’t really say is that Europe has made enormous efforts to get out of this dependence. The share of Russian gas in EU imports fell from 40% before 2022 to 15% at the end of 2023. Instead, Europe buys gas from the United States, Qatar and Azerbaijan in particular. The EU has set itself the goal of no longer importing Russian gas at all by 2027.

For France, this drop is less spectacular, from 17 to 15% according to partial figures. It is much more modest but France was, initially, less dependent on Russian gas than many of its neighbors. It imports less by pipeline but it still buys Russian LNG, a little more even last year. But financially, for Russia, the situation remains clearly good. Especially in a context of falling gas prices.