France's energy-intensive companies are speeding up contingency plans and converting their gas boilers to run on oil as they seek to avoid disruption in the event any further reduction in Russian gas supplies leads to power outages.

Gathered over the weekend at a business and economics conference in southern France, several top executives said they were preparing for possible blackouts.

"What we've done is we've converted our boilers, so they're capable of running on gas or oil, and we can even switch to coal if we need to," said Florent Menegaux, the boss of Michelin, one of the world's leading tyre-makers.

"The aim is to avoid having to shut down a plant in case we face a shortage," he added, saying that while a gas shortage in Europe was likely, oil would still be available as an alternative.

Russia in June reduced flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, its main route for shipping gas into western Europe, to 40 percent of capacity. Politicians and industry are concerned there will be further supply constraints linked to Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Across Europe, industry has been resorting to more polluting fuel than gas as it gives precedence to tackling the cost to the economy of business disruption and surging energy prices, rather than longer-term targets to switch to zero carbon fuel.

Automaker Stellantis is weighing options to produce its own energy in case of an energy crunch, Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said at a French factory last month.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told the top corporate executives attending the conference it would be irresponsible not to prepare for shortages.

France, relies on nuclear power for around 70 percent of its electricity, meaning it is far less directly dependent on Russian gas than neighboring Germany.

However, the state-controlled electricity producer EDF is struggling to meet France's needs because of outages at its ageing power plants, increasing the strain on the rest of the energy sector.

It has also sought to reduce the impact of a surge in energy prices by capping retail gas and power prices until the end of the year, which has helped to keep French inflation among the lowest in Europe.

(Cover via CFP)