French Lean Toward Ban of a Controversial Gas Extraction Technique – NYTimes.com
May 11, 2011
French Lean Toward Ban of a Controversial Gas Extraction Technique – NYTimes.com.
French Lean Toward Ban of a Controversial Gas Extraction Technique
By DAVID JOLLY
Published: May 10, 2011
PARIS — French lawmakers opened debate on Tuesday on proposals to ban a method for extracting oil and gas deposits from shale because of environmental concerns, throwing up the first serious stumbling block to firms that want to use the practice.
Looking with alarm at the experience in the United States, where shale gas is booming, even members of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s governing conservative party have come out against the practice, known as hydraulic fracturing, in which water, sand and chemicals are pumped deep underground under high pressure to free scattered pockets of oil and gas from dense rock formations.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, “is not something we want to use in France,” Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the environment minister, said on RMC Radio.
“Shale gas is the same as any other gas,” said Ms. Kosciusko-Morizet, who in February announced a halt in all exploration, pending the results of a study. “What poses a problem is the technology used. Today there aren’t 30 technologies, there’s only one for extracting shale gas — hydraulic fracturing.”
Even without the final study, which is expected in June, deputies in the National Assembly are expected to pass a ban on Wednesday. The legislation will then be sent to the Senate.
Proponents of so-called unconventional gas and oil argue that exploiting European shale deposits would reduce the Continent’s dependence on imports. Shale-based fuels have only begun to appear on the regional energy agenda but may become increasingly visible in the second half of 2011, when Poland assumes the rotating presidency of the European Union. The Poles, leery of their reliance on Russia for their gas, have embraced the search for shale gas.
Fracking has been employed in the United States since the 1990s to tap beds of shale that energy producers had previously considered almost useless. Production from those wells now contributes nearly a quarter of the United States gas supply, driving down prices for consumers. But criticism of the practice has been growing even as it spreads.
A critical documentary on the practice, “Gasland,” was nominated this year for an Oscar, and a spill in Pennsylvania by Chesapeake Energy that polluted a waterway with fracking chemicals seemed to confirm some people’s worst fears.
A ban would affect companies, including Hess Oil France, which has teamed up with the French unit of Toreador Resources to explore in the Paris area; Vermilion Energy, a Canadian company; Schuepbach Energy, a Texas company that is allied with Gaz de France; and Total, the largest French oil company.
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