French regulator doesn’t expect energy supply problems

PARIS (Reuters) – France should not encounter any energy supply issues and so there is no need for panic, the head of the country’s CRE regulatory body said on Wednesday, adding requests for citizens to be careful about consumption were quite normal.

“Everything will be fine, the gas storage facilities are well filled, we’ll make it through the winter,” CRE head Jean-François Carenco told BFM TV.

“We must collectively make an effort and everything will be fine. It is quite normal to ask French people to reduce their consumption,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Germany declared an “early warning” of a possible gas supply emergency, saying the measure was designed to prepare for the risk of disruption or stoppage of natural gas flows from Russia.

The announcement – the clearest sign yet that the European Union is preparing for supply disruptions after imposing unprecedented sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – comes as Moscow plans to introduce a new mechanism switching payment for its gas to rouble

Separately, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Europe 1 radio on Wednesday that France was preparing itself for “all possible scenarios” regarding Russian gas supplies.

“My responsibility and that of the President is to anticipate all scenarios. There could be one where (Russian President) Vladimir Putin decides to stop Russian gas supplies to France and Europe. One better be prepared for such a scenario,” he said.

“We must work on emergency solutions in case this decision is taken, even if this is not the central scenario,” he added.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Benoit Van Overstraeten Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Mark Potter)