Natural gas consumption down 11.4% in France in 2023

According to GRTGaz, natural gas consumption will fall by 11.4% in 2023 compared with 2022, to 381 TWh. This represents a 20% fall compared with 2021. Consumption will fall by 7.2% in large-scale industry and by 6.3% in households, the tertiary sector and SMEs. The quantities of gas used to generate electricity have fallen by 40.6% compared with 2022, a year in which gas-fired power stations were running at high capacity due to the drop in nuclear power generation.
According to GRTGaz, a large part of the fall in gas consumption in industry is structural: relocation, switching from gas to other energy sources. The decline has reached 26% in the paper sector, and 15% in chemicals and glass.
However, gas consumption rose by 7% in January 2024.