Orange with Media Services, published on Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 10:35 p.m.
This is a first: France began Thursday, October 13 to send gas directly to Germany. These first deliveries materialize a mutual aid agreement formalized on September 5 between Emmanuel Macron and the German leader Olaf Scholz.
Europe hopes that energy solidarity between member countries will allow it to overcome this winter the drying up of flows from Russia decided by Vladimir Putin.
How to deal with the fall in gas flows from Russia this winter? France began Thursday, October 13 for the first time to send gas directly to Germany. These first deliveries materialize a mutual aid agreement formalized on September 5 between Emmanuel Macron and the German leader Olaf Scholz. Europe hopes that the energy solidarity between member countries will allow it to meet its energy needs this winter.
At a time when gas is highly coveted and its price dizzying, “It’s historic, the first time that France will deliver gas directly to Germany. Until now, we sent gas to our neighbor via Belgium “, told theAFP Thierry Found, Managing Director of GRTgaz, the manager of the French gas transmission network.
Deliver 10% of what France receives
The first sales of odorised gas to Germany began at 6 a.m. at 31 gigawatt hours/day, passing through the border towns of Obergailbach (Moselle) on the French side, and Medelsheim in Saarland, at the gas network interconnection point.
The level of this capacity will be “assessed daily depending on network conditions”, and may reach a maximum of 100 GWh/day. In order of magnitude, this corresponds to the power of four nuclear units or the equivalent of 10% of what France receives every day in LNG in its four LNG terminals, according to GRTGaz, which estimates that it is able to serve Germany. all winter.
“Our calculations allow us to be optimistic about our ability to serve French demand and to support electricity production while contributing to European solidarity”, specified to theAFP Thierry Found. On condition, however, that France saves its “gas lake” with sobriety measures to avoid shortages in the event of a late cold snap.
After the invasion of Ukraine, Russia considerably reduced its gas deliveries to Europe, on which certain countries were very dependent. This is the case of Germany, which needs this energy to run its factories, the nerve of its economy.
However, France has more gas than its neighbor because it benefits from massive inflows from Norway and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States, which have enabled it in part to fill its winter stocks to 100%. The two leaders have therefore agreed that France should deliver more gas to Germany, which could in return supply, if necessary, electricity to its neighbor weakened by a nuclear production at its lowest.