Île-de-France prepares for the end of petroleum extraction

Discover some selected extracts from the article in Le Parisien of 10 October 2022

“The clock is ticking for the oil companies based in the Paris Basin, the main reservoir in France along with Aquitaine, some of them for more than sixty years. The pumps will cease their regular dance on 31 December 2039, in line with the provisions of the Hulot law passed five years ago, putting an end to conventional oil exploitation in France. So, after this “crushing blow of a decision that makes no sense”, according to the oil companies, any good news is welcome for the operators, such as the price of a barrel of oil reaching new highs, between $90 and $120. In order to free up funds for research and prepare for a possible reconversion, since, of course, the search for and exploitation of shale oil is no longer relevant since 2011 (….)

With 18 concessions in Seine-et-Marne, 4 in Essonne and a few in Marne and Aube, Vermilion, IPC Pétroléum, Géopétrol, SPPE and Bridge Energy produced 60% of the national production last year, i.e. 389,000 tonnes. A declining figure, far from the 18 million tonnes of thirty years ago, which does not cool these companies, specialised in the management of so-called mature wells, which often took over the wells of Total, Esso or Elf for√©s when the state encouraged oil research in the 1960s and then 1980s. Elf even operated a lease on the outskirts of Paris, in Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), between 1988 and 1991.

SMEs that sustain an often rural economic network

Geothermal energy, aquaponics, all avenues are being explored, lithium contained in oil, companies’ states of mind….

Géothermie, aquaponie ,toutes les pistes sont à l’étude, lithium contenus dans le pétrole, états d’esprit des compagnies….