The United States became France’s first gas supplier in 2022, the year the war in Ukraine began, ahead of Norway and Russia, where France supplied 15%, according to key energy 2023 figures published on Thursday.
In the context of sharp price increases and supply tensions linked to the Russian invasion, the United States has also established itself as the main source of crude oil imports for France.
They occupied ninth place in 2018, while Russia fell from sixth to tenth, states the document published annually by the Ministry of Energy Transition.
This summary compiles the main figures that allow us to understand the sector and the dependencies of France. Remember that “France now imports almost all the fossil fuels it consumes.”
Quantities of crude oil imported from the United States increased by 37% to 6.2 megatonnes of oil equivalent in 2022, ahead of Kazakhstan (5.7 Mtoe), Nigeria (4.2), Algeria (3.7), while direct purchases from Russia fell 30% to 2.2 Mtoe, the document said.
Gas supply has been “profoundly modified by the repercussions of the war in Ukraine”, details a graph that breaks down, country by country, the 640 TWh PCS of gas imported by France in 2022.
France’s energy bill in 2022 almost tripled
Si les importations françaises de gas naturel ont “nettement” augmenté en 2022, c’est “en raison de la forte croissance des importations de gas naturall liquéfié (LNG), dont une partie est destinée à d’autres pays après regazéification”, observe The document.
In 2022, the United States thus becomes “France’s main supplier (25% of gross revenue), ahead of Norway (22% of total gross revenue), Russia (15%), Algeria (8%), Qatar (4%), Netherlands (3%) and Nigeria (2%).
The year 2022 was marked by a “diversification of supply” with purchases from other countries that have “strongly” developed, along with purchases in markets (17%) where the origin of the gas cannot be traced.
In total, France’s energy bill for 2022 has almost tripled (multiplied by 2.6, and even by 3.4 for gas alone) and has “reached a record level.”
A considerable increase linked to the increase in oil and gas prices, but also to an unprecedented deficit in nuclear electricity production.
The energy bill represented “116.3 billion euros in France’s trade deficit,” the document underlines.
Source: BFM TV
