Oil reserves in France
[2] In fact, as a member of the International Energy Agency (IEA), France must maintain oil reserves equivalent to 90 days' net imports, corresponding in 2010 to around 17 million tonnes.
During this period, France produced around 100 million tonnes of oil and 300 billion cubic metres of natural gas (245 Gm3 from the Lacq field alone, 56 Gm3 from Meillon).
[3] In the 2000s, around 20,000 barrels of crude oil were extracted every day from the two regions (55% from Île-de-France and 45% from Aquitaine),[4] representing 0.7 Mtoe by 2020.
[7] At the beginning of 2017, the other main producers were Lundin Petroleum (Sweden), which during the year transferred its activities in France[8] to a new company, International Petroleum Corporation, based in Canada, Geopétrol, Petrorep (the first company to discover commercially exploitable oil in the Paris Basin in 1958[9]) and Société pétrolière production exploitation.
[3] In 2014, the Union française des industries pétrolières estimated that "the total workforce in the para-oil and para-gas sector in France is 65,000, with 50 % of activities linked to hydrocarbon exploration and production".
Existing operating permits may not be extended beyond 2040, unless the company requesting the extension demonstrates that it has not covered its research costs by exploiting the deposit.
[4] Production in the Paris Basin dates back to the 1950s, when France set its sights on oil self-sufficiency and began a series of major research programs in the Seine-et-Marne region.
[22] On the Cap Ferret peninsula, wells are being drilled to tap an oil table at a depth of 3,200 m, part of the resources of the Aquitaine basin.
The Cap Ferret well, opened in 1962, used a deviated borehole to tap the "Lavergne" deposit located under the sea between the Pointe and the Banc d'Arguin.
[23][24][25] In 2023, Vermilion intends to increase the exploitation of its "Cazaux" concession in the La Teste forest by drilling additional wells.
Merkwiller-Pechelbronn, 50 kilometers from Strasbourg, was one of the first oil fields in the world to be exploited (using a system of underground galleries rather than boreholes), from the time it was founded in 1740 by Louis Pierre Ancillon de la Sablonnière until December 31, 1964, when it was finally shut down.
As of 2014, thirteen wells, most of them recent, are in operation in Bas-Rhin, extracting 8,000 tonnes of crude a year, which are refined in Karlsruhe, Germany, since the closure of the Reichstett Refinery in January 2011.
[33][34] In fact, according to an assessment by the EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration), France and Poland are the European countries with the largest shale gas resources.
[36] In the south-west, under a prospecting permit granted by the French government in 2006, known as the "Permis de Foix", Canadian company Encana drilled two exploratory wells for shale gas in 2007, one year at Franquevielle[37] and 4 months at Mérigon.
These prospective drillings, authorized by the French government with little information for local populations, contributed to the lively controversy over this type of fossil fuel and its extraction methods.
The law of July 13, 2011 repealed permits for projects involving the exploitation of reserves by hydraulic fracturing.
By 2020–2030, public authorities and industry professionals believe that, given forecasts of falling consumption of petroleum products, one or two more refineries will close, in the absence of investments to boost their competitiveness and a rebalancing of demand for gasoline and diesel.
