Following French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement on 5 September that France and Germany had agreed to a gas solidarity agreement, French gas system operator GRTGaz announced on 7 September that tests carried out on the gas interconnector connecting the border areas of Obergailbach and Medelsh September have been successful. This gave France’s energy regulatory commission, CRE, the go-ahead to launch on Thursday the project’s public consultation phase, which will run until 27 September to confirm costs for providers and consumers. For France to start sending gas to Germany via the pipeline from 10 October, the CRE will still have to wait for the French Superior Energy Council to give its opinion on the costs, so that it can give its final green light. If approved, the project will allow GRTGaz to sell 100 Gigawatt hours per day (GWh/d) to Germany, with the possibility of selling unsold gas the day after. The quantity amounts to what about four nuclear reactors can produce a day, GRTGaz CEO Thierry Trouvé said during a presentation of the project on Wednesday (14 September). Gas has become a hot commodity in Germany since imports from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline – which accounted for over a quarter of the country’s gas consumption – were suspended on 1 September.
This Franco-German project could thus close the gap caused by the Nord Stream 1 suspension and help Germany – which consumed a total of 1.55 TWh/d of electricity in 2021 – meet its energy needs. “We must be responsive so that European solidarity with regards to gas and electricity is concrete,” CRE’s new president, Emmanuelle Wargon, tweeted following the announcement. The project could thus come as a saving grace for Germany, which has been urging France since August to lift its opposition to the Franco-Spanish MidCat pipeline. Its construction has been on hold since 2019 and Macron said he would only change his position if he were convinced of the project’s usefulness.