If France is not exposed in the same way as Bulgaria and Poland, the subject is cross -border and several solutions are being studied.
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How would France without Russian gas would react, in case of taps closed by the Kremlin? Subject to such a scenario, the country would have additional alternatives compared to Bulgaria and Poland. These two members of the European Union (EU) already face such a sanction, a collateral effect of war in Ukraine. During the night of Tuesday, 26 to Wednesday, April 27, the two countries of the East announced that the Russian Gazprom group notified the suspension, on Wednesday, of any delivery. However, the gas imports of Bulgaria depend at 75 % of Russian gas, and those of Poland at 55 %, according to data in 2020 Eurostat, the European Statistics Office.
This is not the case with France: its supplies are mainly supplier to Norway, up to 36 %, against 17 % from Russia, 8 % Algeria, and 7.5 % of Netherlands or Nigeria. The question “is not at all the same in all European states,” said the French Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, from March.
Another difference: the share of gas in primary consumption of France (16 % in 2020) remains well below that in Germany (almost 25 %), where nuclear is about to live its last hours. Not to mention Italy (almost 40 %), which has already given up the atom in its electricity production. 2> Grouped purchases
The gas network being interconnected, the problem is nonetheless cross -border. In recent years, Russian deliveries have been tested about 40 % of EU gas needs. Without Russian gas overnight, “we would then enter a new world for energy, under the effect of an unprecedented physical shock and prize shock”, warned Catherine Macgregor, Managing Director of The French company Engie, in an interview with the Echos of March 7. To the point of “[transform] undoubtedly the energy landscape”, supposes the manager.
Diversification of supplies, voluntary reduction in consumption, optimization of stocks, grouped purchases: various solutions are today under study, in France as elsewhere, to start to mitigate the ultradependance of the continent to hydrocarbons deliveries Russians. On March 8, the European Commission proposed an ambitious plan aimed at reducing deliveries by two thirds at the end of the current year. Either to anticipate the effects of a sanction on the part of Russia, such as that inflicted now on Bulgarians and Poles. On the contrary, to succeed in sanctioning Russia, two months after the invasion of Ukraine by its troops.
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