Russian gas accounts for 10% of total supplies to France

France continues to import gas from Russia, contrary to its policy of reducing the share of Russian gas purchases; it amounts to 10% of total purchases, Minister of Energy Transition of France Agnès Pannier-Runacher said, Report informs referring to TASS.

“France continues to purchase small volumes of Russian gas, accounting for about 10% of total supplies,” the minister said on RMC radio, adding that “trade in Russian gas is not boycotted.” Strategic reserves in the republic’s gas storage facilities are 99% full, she noted.

At the pan-European level, the share of gas imports from Russia is 15%, she said. Pannier-Runacher emphasized that this is noticeably less than 45%, as it was before the start of the Ukrainian conflict. However, in February 2023, the spokeswoman for the French Foreign Ministry, Anne-Claire Legendre, in an interview with RTVI television, claimed that the share of Russian gas purchases had decreased to 8%.

Gas withdrawals from underground storage facilities in EU countries on October 25, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe, amounted to 45 million cubic meters. Injection amounted to 87 million cubic meters.

European UGS facilities are 98.71% full (8.66 p.p. higher than the average for this date over the past five years), they contain 108.73 billion cubic meters of gas, which is a historical maximum for gas reserves in the EU. European countries filled their underground storage facilities with gas to the target 90% for the heating season back in mid-August. Previously, the European Commission expected to achieve such indicators only by November.