The French government moves forward with the hydrocarbon exploitation ban

The French Ministry of Ecology (Ministère de la Transition Écologique et Solidaire) has presented a bill meant to end the hydrocarbon exploration and production activities on the French territory. The objective is to initiate the gradual and irreversible withdrawal of oil and gas production on French territory by 2040. Although this text is a significant landmark, its scope is still relatively limited. Each year, France produces about 800 Mt of oil, which represents around 1% of the national consumption.



The draft has been submitted to the Council of Ministers on 6 September and to the National Ecological Transition Council on 23 August. The core tenet of the bill is to ban the search for unconventional hydrocarbons, ie shale gases and oils, but also methane hydrates buried in the seas or under permafrost (permanently frozen ground). However, hydrocarbons contained in coal layers - mine or coal gases - are exempted from this prohibition, "for safety reasons" (spontaneous fumes requiring a capture to avoid a risk of explosion) and "protection of the environment "(methane being a powerful greenhouse gas).



The July 2011 law had already blocked shale gases and oils exploitation on the French territory by prohibiting hydraulic fracturing, the only technique now available to extract these products from the parent rock, with significant environmental nuisance. But it left the way open to alternative methods. In the future, the search for unconventional hydrocarbons in France will be proscribed by "any technical means whatsoever".