War in Iran: “no risk” of gas and gasoline shortages in the “short term” in France

The situation is monitored daily. The war in the Middle East creates “economic and financial uncertainties” that the government must “monitor very closely”, but “there is no short-term supply risk” in France “neither on gas nor on gasoline”, assured Tuesday March 3 the Minister of the Economy Roland Lescure.

“So let’s not create a problem that doesn’t exist, no reason to rush to gas stations,” he said.

The minister specified that a system had been put in place to deal with this situation, including a “crisis unit which meets once a day” under his direction at Bercy “to monitor developments in the financial markets, economic indicators and, obviously, the energy markets”.

The price of European gas is soaring

The price of gas soared again on Tuesday, with the Dutch TTF futures contract, considered the benchmark for natural gas on the Old Continent, jumping 22.50% to 54.52 euros around 08:20 GMT.

European natural gas prices soared after Qatar’s state-owned energy company, QatarEnergy, announced on Monday that it would halt its production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) following Iranian attacks on the installations of two of its main gas processing sites. Earlier, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest refineries had to halt some operations.

All eyes remain on the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which separates Iran from the Arabian Peninsula and provides access to the Gulf, and through which approximately 20% of oil and LNG transits.

A general of the Revolutionary Guards threatened on Monday to “burn any ship” attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic passage for global oil trade closed de facto by the war, and to block all oil exports from the Gulf.

The price of a barrel on the rise

Around 8:20 a.m., the price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea, the international benchmark for a barrel of black gold, gained another 3.76% to $80.66 and that of its American equivalent, WTI, gained 3.55% to $73.76.

When the oil market opened on Monday, Brent had soared by more than 13%. “Although significant”, this movement “remains lower than the extreme variations observed during the global financial crisis (of 2008), the turbulence linked to Covid or even certain geopolitical events” such as the war in Ukraine, tempers Jim Reid.