France about to authorize experimentations on hydraulic fracturing

Le Monde, the famous French newspaper, revealed in its edition from March 24th that the “Report on source rock hydrocarbons” (in other words, shale oil and gas) was discretely published on March 22nd. This report, ordered by the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Environment, recommend the authorization of a limited number of drill in order to experiment hydraulic fracturing.

According to the French law of the 13 July 2011, hydraulic fracturing is prohibited, but Article 4 recognizes the right for experimentations. The evaluation comityargues that France cannot neglect substantial resources that would allow to reduce its energy costs. According to the comity, hydraulic fracturing is for the moment the only available technique allowing the exploitation of shale hydrocarbons. The experts therefore argue that “scientific drills” should be allowed in order to reduce the potential risks of this technique. They recommend that these experimentations be limited to the Parisian Basin where exploration licenses for shale oil are already granted. This is probably also a prudent approach in order to avoid the regions were protestations of the locals were more vigorous and could still be easily roused.

I recommend the reading of the original paper in Le Monde, here. And the complete report can be downloaded here.