Alain BELTRAN, The French gas network and new technologies since 1946. The French gas system demonstrates the complete transformation of an old industry - town gas - into a modern technology -natural gas, beginning in 1946 when the gas utility was nationalized. In other words, a chemical activity was changed into an energy industry. The discovery and exploitation of gas resources in France (Aquitaine) and abroad (the USSR, Algeria, Norway and the Netherlands have made Gaz de France more influential. The state-owned company has proved itself capable of building a national infrastructure for the transportation of gas, first in the east of France (Lorraine), then, throughout most of the country. Gas de France has also been able to deal successfully with the problems of gas liquefying and storage. But this evolution has taken place in an environment of stiff competition. Heating fuel and electricity have restricted natural gas to a modest share of the French market (approximately 13-14% of total primary energy supply, less than the Western European average). And the unification of Europe in 1992 raises yet more questions for this still fledgling industry.

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