France can survive without Russian gas, says French Energy Min as Kremlin halts supply

French Minister of Energy Agnès Pannier-Runacher, on Thursday, asserted that her country can survive without the supply of Russian gas. Speaking to Le Figarо, she said "We can do without Russian gas, this assumes that all LNG tankers arrive on time and that we can comfortably fill our strategic storage facility.” Her remarks came as Gazprom confirmed that the EU county wasn't receiving any Russian gas via pipelines since June 15. Notably, France gets 17 percent of its gas from Russia through Nord Stream pipeline connections with Germany-which has described the cut-off as a “political move”. 

Meanwhile, a report by Local France said that gas supplies had already been reduced by 60 percent since the beginning of 2022. However, French gas transmitter GRTgaz said that the country’s reserves were at 56 capacity, much more than 50 per cent normally in June. Also, it is pertinent to note that France imports natural gas from the Netherlands and Norway apart from Russia. The country has also bolstered its supplies from Spain as well as the import of LPG via maritime routes. 

In retaliation to Western sanctions, Moscow has already turned the tap-off for Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands along with France in recent weeks. Also, the country last week reduced gas supplies to four other European Union (EU) countries. Gazprom slashed gas supplies to Germany by 60 percent. Germany is the biggest economy in the bloc that is heavily dependent on Moscow’s gas to generate electricity and power industry. Other countries that were battered by the Kremlin's retaliation to sanctions are Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

EU poised to slash out Russian gas 

Earlier in March, the bloc agreed to collectively rearm and phase out Russian gas, oil, and coal "as soon as possible". Labelling the ongoing war in Ukraine as "a tectonic shift in European history," the leaders asked European nations to preserve energy. They also revealed a strategy to reduce reliance on Russian fuel which would involve lowering consumption of fossil fuels, diversifying supply chains as well as harnessing more renewable sources of energy. For this purpose, they tasked the European Commission to make proposals by the end of May. Russia's all-out war against Ukraine has entered its 121 day.

(Image: AP)