France can have crude oil supplied from other countries but the country depends significantly on supplies of Russian oil products, particularly diesel fuel for road transport. It will be hard to find an alternative source in other countries, IAA PortNews staff reporter in France cited Nicolas Mazzucchi, expert of Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), as telling France 3 channel.
In 2021, 42 ships carrying fuel (coal and diesel) from Russia called Bordeaux. Diesel fuel made the bulk of those deliveries - 41 calls.
Despite the sanctions, France continued accepting Russian vessels with hydrocarbons. In March, Bordeaux welcomed tankers with diesel fuel which is not covered by embargo, according to the Prefecture of the Gironde Department. The fuel was delivered by ships under foreign flags (Portuguese, German, etc.). The port also says that Ambes oil and chemical products terminal handled two tankers from Russia out of 30 vessels that called Bordeaux.
If France stops energy imports from Russia, the impact for France would be modest with a decline of around 0.15 to 0.3% in gross national income, according to the report of Conseil d'analyse économique (CAE) published on April 4. For Germany, the report says, the negative impact on gross national income is real (around 0.3% and up to 3% in the most pessimistic scenarios) but overall moderate and can be absorbed.
As for the economic consequences for some EU countries, they are much greater: Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Finland or the Czech Republic may experience national income drops of between 1 and 5%.
According to CAE Chair Philippe Martin, the analysis takes into consideration the impact of possible new embargo on production and sale chains but does not account the effect of the demand. The report publication coincides with the increase of EU demands to stop import of Russian oil and gas.