Gas supplies from Russia to France have been significantly reduced, the minister said

MOSCOW, Sep 2 — PRIME. Russian gas deliveries to France have not stopped, but have been reduced to a very low level, said the country’s Minister of Energy Transformation, Agnès Pannier-Runachet.

“Russian gas supplies are at a low level, but they have not been stopped,” she said at a press conference following a meeting of the Defense and National Security Council.

Earlier this week, Gazprom announced the suspension of supplies to the French energy company Engie due to non-payment of July gas in full.

Gazprom’s deliveries to the French energy company had already declined in July and amounted to 1.5 TWh per month, or 4% of total deliveries, Figaro reported, citing a communiqué.

nuclear power plant

Pannier-Runachet also said that the French energy company EDF has committed to restarting all shutdown nuclear power units by winter to avoid a shortage of electricity in the country.

“We will be closely monitoring the situation during the weekly reports in order to comply with this schedule,” the minister stressed.

At the moment, only 24 of the 56 French nuclear reactors operated by EDF in the country are active. Some of them were stopped for planned repairs. Corrosion problems in the cooling systems were identified at 12 power units in May, and their work was suspended. EDF said last week that it would extend repairs to four of those 12 reactors.