Drill baby drill – the French way? A court hearing examined the project for more oil drilling in Seine-et-Marne on Thursday, January 9. Opponents warn of the risk of contamination of a water table that supplies 180,000 residents of the Paris region.
Does France really have the ambition to become the first country to phase out fossil fuels in 2022, as President Emmanuel Macron has announced? The hearing that took place on Thursday 9th January at the Administrative Court of Melun (Seine-et-Marne) – whose judgement is due within three weeks – casts doubt on this. On the one hand, Bridge Energies, a French company set up in 2006 to exploit oil wells in the Paris basin, defended the opening of two new wells in the town of Nonville (Seine-et-Marne) in order to “maintain its activity”.
Its production would then increase from an average of 10 to 16 m3 of oil per month (around 100 barrels of oil). In the face of this, the public water utility of the Blue Community / Blue City of Paris, Eau de Paris has challenged the prefectural decree of 30 January 2024 authorising the opening of these works on the grounds of the risk of contamination of “strategic sources” of drinking water for Paris and the surrounding area, which are located in the immediate vicinity of these deposits. The eagerly awaited public rapporteur called for a more detailed impact study to be carried out within six months, but did not consider it necessary to cancel these new oil installations.
Since May, six environmental associations, six municipalities and two trade unions have announced their support for the appeal and also called for the prefectural decree to be overturned. Despite the rain and cold, they had gathered before the hearing to denounce these new drilling operations.
“I would have preferred it if the public rapporteur had asked for the decision to be annulled,” said Dan Lert, chairman of Eau de Paris, as he left the court. “It will take longer, but we are determined [to get the annulment]. We will exhaust all possible means of redress. We will go to the European level if necessary.”
Two water tables crossed
In order to exploit this oil deposit, which lies at a depth of 1,510 metres, two water tables will have to be crossed, with the risk of contamination. “This is a potential ecological disaster,” says Dan Lert. “These oil wells have been authorised in a strategic drinking water catchment area, the Lunain valley, which supplies 180,000 people in the Greater Paris region. These sites are sensitive at the time of drilling, but also during operation”, because of the karstic nature of the soil.
What’s more, “the extraction and transport of hydrocarbons also entail a number of risks: pollution of the soil, surface water and groundwater by hydrocarbons and other chemical substances linked to the extraction activity”. Two incidents have already led to pollution in recent years: a tanker overturned in 2013 and a leak on the platform in 2022. “In the event of pollution, the installations could be shut down for years,” he stressed.
In response to this criticism, Bridge Energies, through its lawyer, pointed out that the prefectoral decree provides for annual monitoring and an alert system in the event of an incident. It also pointed out that these changes will allow the company to continue its operations, as one of its other wells in the area is beginning to run dry. “This is a major economic challenge for the future of the company,” Bridge Energies argued.
In the courtyard, environmental groups pointed out the anachronism of these new wells at a time when all the experts at the IPCC and the International Energy Agency are calling for the last reserves of fossil fuels to be left in the ground. “In 2024, we will have exceeded 1.5°C of warming. Giving this permit is absolute nonsense,’ said Anna-Lena Rebaud, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth.
The Hulot Law of 2017 provides for the end of oil production by 2040. It also bans the granting of new exploration licences for hydrocarbons – although in this case the sites are already known – and stipulates that exploitation must be phased out. For Jean-François Dupont, co-president of France Nature Environnement Seine-et-Marne, this is a ‘long-term battle’. “Seine-et-Marne is an oil El Dorado. There are about twenty wells in operation. It’s time to turn off the tap,’ he insisted. The verdict will be delivered in three weeks’ time.
