Industry CEOs say France is at major risk of shortages and soaring prices

The chief executives of French energy companies TotalEnergies, EDF, and Engie have urged the country’s households and businesses to immediately lower consumption of fuel, oil, electricity and gas to be better prepared for the winter season.

“We must collectively take action on energy demand by reducing our consumption to recoup margins of maneuver,” a joint opinion piece issued by Jean-Bernard Levy, Catherine MacGregor and Patrick Pouyanne on Sunday reads.

According to the statement, published by Le Journal du Dimanche, potential price explosions threaten the “social cohesion” of the nation and have a dramatic impact upon consumer purchasing power.

“We will need them to manage the coming consumption peaks and to smooth out technical events or geopolitical shocks that we may have to face,” it said.

The bosses of the country’s largest energy groups highlighted that acting already this summer will make France better prepared ahead of winter. They believe that an immediate collective effort to boost energy efficiency would increase the purchasing power of households and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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The call comes as France, like the rest of Europe, is trying to boost its gas reserves for next winter and, despite the drop in Russian gas deliveries, is targeting 100% storage levels by early autumn.

Earlier this month, French gas transmission system operator GRTgaz reported that it was no longer receiving Russian pipeline gas from Germany. The deliveries were substantially curtailed due to technical issues arising from Western sanctions. Russian energy giant Gazprom said that German energy equipment operator Siemens Energy had failed to return repaired gas pumping units for the North Stream pipeline from a maintenance facility in Canada due to the country’s sanctions on Russia.

Moreover, the company said that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would stop delivering gas to Germany for 10 days in mid-July due to scheduled annual maintenance. The work will take place from July 11 to July 21.

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