Gas stocks: the main "optimistic" manager for winter 2023/24

"For this winter, we are optimistic because our capacities are 100% full and we have not yet really started a sustained withdrawal (note: use of gas), so we think that we will be able to end the year at quite correct storage levels, around 30, 35%", explained Pierre Chambon, general manager of Storengy France, during a press conference.

“It also has an impact for next winter, because if you end up with fairly comfortable reserves at the end of winter, you will need less gas to fill them,” he explained.

The stakes are high, given the supply difficulties posed by the war in Ukraine. The gas storages of Storengy and its competitor Teréga represent 25% of consumption in France, the remaining 75% being transported in continuous flows, either by pipeline or by ship.

Storengy notes, in addition to a drop in household consumption, "since the summer, a very sharp drop in industrial gas consumption, around 30% in France and Germany", in particular due to the price of gas.

However, the supply for next winter is encountering a difficulty, with a marketing campaign for storage capacities which "starts a little difficult", according to Estibaliz Gonzalez-Ferrer, commercial and strategy director of Storengy France.

This is explained by very high and volatile gas prices, and above all "spreads" or negative gas price differences between summer and winter, which do not allow the storage of gas, traditionally purchased at low prices, to be valued. price in the summer to be resold at a higher price in the winter, at the peak of demand.

“But we're just getting started, and we have a whole lot of cards at our disposal to be able to adapt and sell these capabilities just when customers need them,” assured Ms. Gonzalez-Ferrer.

It is counting in particular on "flexibilities" recently granted by the regulator in the terms of marketing, to "allow it to be in a much stronger reactivity".

To consolidate its storage capacities for next winter and the following ones, Storengy is preparing at the same time to bring its site in Trois-Fontaines-l'Abbaye (Marne) back into service, "in order to extract the gas still present in this former storage , i.e. 8 TWh" over fifteen years.

The Engie subsidiary is also awaiting the green light from the regulatory authorities to commission additional storage capacity in existing salt caverns, in Etrez (Ain), north of Bourg-en-Bresse.

They could represent 3 to 6% additional capacity, i.e. 3 to 6 TwH, part of which from winter 2023/24. Storengy also wants to make them "compatible with hydrogen" and thus serve its objective of 1 TWh of hydrogen storage in Europe by 2030, half of which in France.