France has announced that it will no longer purchase Russian gas via the pipeline. This was announced by GRTgaz, the operator of the French gas transmission system. The announcement came today, June 17, after confirmation from Gazprom. The cause is “the interruption of the physical flow between France and Germany” or the technical problems along the Nord Stream 1 plant, which connects gas transport between Moscow and Berlin and thus with other parts of Europe. However, GRTgaz provided reassuring data: as the operator explained, French warehouses are 56% full, 6% more than the usual 50% recorded over the same period. Russian gas supplies to Europe via Nord Stream 1 had already fallen further yesterday, Thursday, June 16. Also yesterday, Moscow warned countries that further delays in repairing the pipeline — caused by sanctions that would slow the return of some components from Canada, according to the Kremlin — could disrupt all flows.
In these hours, Berlin has asserted that Russia’s “excuse” for sanctions is “technically unfounded” and that Moscow is more likely to aim to raise gas prices. For Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz it is a political decision: “The fact of the repair does not justify a gas reduction of this magnitude (-60% to Germany, note d. Red.”, said the spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Mario Draghi also said Russia could use the issue to exert political pressure. The same problem in France and Germany was also noted in Italy: after Eni announced yesterday the reduction of shipments by 65% and two days ago by 15%, today Eni declared that it had suffered a halving of shipments (-50%) . Faced with the problems, prices on the square in Amsterdam have shot up again. Futures contracts for the month of July mark a rise of 7.75% a 134 euros at MWh.