According to Bruno Le Maire, French Finance Minister, the French government is planning for a complete cutoff of Russian gas supplies. This scenario is considered most likely in its forward planning.
France has a 17% dependence on Russian gas, which is lower than some of its neighbours. However, the government has been making contingency plans.
It is especially problematic to cut off power because France’s nuclear power generation would be unable to fill the gap as many reactors are down for maintenance.
He said, speaking at a conference on business and economics in southern France that “I believe that a total cutoff of Russian gas supplies could be a real possibility”
He said, “It would have been totally irresponsible not to address this scenario.” He had earlier described a Russian gas cutoff as the “most probable scenario” during the conference.
Le Maire stated that the first line defense was for households to reduce their energy consumption. Then, they should build new infrastructure such as a floating plant to be able to regasify natural gas shipments from abroad.
Le Maire stated that the government is looking at each company in order to determine which companies can be made to reduce production to save energy.
