Reductions in natural gas supplies from Russia's Gazprom to France's GDF Suez eased to 20% below normal levels by late Monday, a GDF spokeswoman confirmed on Tuesday.
Earlier Monday, GDF Suez said gas supplies from Russia had been cut by about 30% as frigid weather spanning from Russia to Western Europe drove up gas demand. An update from the French company is expected later Tuesday.
France's grid operator GRTgaz, which serves 85% of customers, forecasts gas demand to hit a record 3,295 GWh -- equal to 311 million cubic meters -- on Tuesday, surpassing the previous record of 3,232 GWh, which was set Thursday. Before that the highest was 3,037 GWh, recorded on January 8, 2010.
France's power demand, which is increasingly fueled by gas-fired power plants as more are built, is also expected to hit new highs.
GDF Suez said Monday that customers were not affected by Gazprom's decision to cut supplies to France by 30%. Russian supplies represent only 14% of the group's long-term portfolio, which is procured from over 10 countries, including LNG imports.
GDF Suez last month said it had renegotiated its long-term contracts with most of its suppliers from January 2011 to reduce the link to oil-indexed prices, which have proven to be expensive compared with recent spot gas prices.
GDF Suez would not comment on whether these renegotiations included an increase in the volume of gas it receives from Gazprom, but a study of GRTgaz-published data shows that net inflows through the Obergailbach entry point, where Russian gas enters France from Germany, have increased strongly since the start of the year.
Therefore, although supplies from Gazprom may have been reduced because of the cold weather, the level of inflows through the eastern entry point are still much higher than the same time last year. In January, net inflows through Obergailbach
rose by 31.8% on the year to 11 TWh and in the week that ended January 5, when Gazprom had started to reduce flows into Europe, net inflows at Obergailbach climbed by 30.3% on the year to 2.4 TWh.
