Serge Papin said the government would unlock new fuel stocks "if necessary": minister’s office clarifies remarks and says the measure is not on the agenda

The office of the Minister of Commerce and SMEs, Serge Papin, qualified on Wednesday the remarks made on Tuesday by the minister, namely that the French government "will continue if necessary" to release part of its strategic fuel reserves, a measure which, according to his office, is "not on the agenda". To cushion the impact of the increase in fuel prices since the conflict in the Middle East, the government has released stocks for the benefit of service stations, "things that are renewable", Serge Papin said on Tuesday on RMC. “We will continue if necessary,” he assured.

But on Wednesday, his cabinet moderated his comments: "This response (from Serge Papin, editor's note) confirms that the government, as it has done since the start of the conflict in the Middle East, will adapt the response to help workers and the sectors most impacted by the rise in fuel prices." But “concerning the release of new strategic stocks, this release is not on the agenda,” he tempered. “And then, we will see” “The decision taken with the other G7 powers has made it possible to lower prices and provides visibility until next January,” he further clarified.

Asked in parallel on Sud Radio on Tuesday about the duration of this drop in prices at the pump, the Minister of the Economy Roland Lescure recalled that stocks had been released for "three months, November, December, January". “And then, we’ll see,” he said, hoping for a “delamination” of the conflict after the American elections.

Machine-translated from French