Paris town hall opposes an oil drilling project in Seine-et-Marne

The State authorized this project defended by the company Bridge Energies. But the operator Eau de Paris referred the matter to the administrative court, citing threats to the “safety of the drinking water supply”.

The Paris town hall denounced a new oil drilling project on Monday May 6, even though this initiative planned in Seine-et-Marne had been authorized by the State. It’s about a “potential environmental disaster, at a time when water resources are increasingly threatened”, denounces the town hall led by Anne Hidalgo in a press release.

Its operator, Eau de Paris, filed an interim application with the Melun administrative court to suspend the prefectural decree of January 30 authorizing the opening of work on the Nonville hydrocarbon concession, 80 km southeast of the capital, according to the request sent to AFP.

In its request, Eau de Paris considers that the extension of the existing drilling site compromises “the security of the drinking water supply to the city of Paris”but also “the biodiversity” And “the fight against climate change”. For Dan Lert, deputy for ecological transition and president of Eau de Paris, the government “play with fire” because 180,000 Parisians and Seine-et-Marnais receive their drinking water from the two catchments located near the oil site, in Villeron and Villemer.

Towards new drilling also in Gironde?

The company Bridge Energies holds a concession to exploit the current deposit until 2034 and already operates three wells, opened between 2012 and 2014. It obtained from the State to open two others, of a depth of 1,500 m, following a public inquiry. In its opinion, the Environmental Authority makes a significant number of recommendations, including that “to analyze and prevent the risks of an accident or malicious act leading to hydrocarbon spills that could reach Lunain”river classified Natura 2000.

Bridge Energies “does not wish to comment until the administrative court has issued its first order” on the appeal filed urgently, its president Philippe Pont told AFP. The company presents itself as the smallest of the five French oil producers, with its sole concession being Nonville, where only one of the three wells still produces oil. Discovered in the 1950s, this deposit produced around 5 million barrels between 1959 and 1994, according to Philippe Pont.

In France, oil production represents 1% of national consumption, two thirds of which are produced in the Paris basin and the rest in the Aquitaine basin, in Gironde. Contacted, the Ministry of the Economy does not “no comment”. In February, the Minister for Industry and Energy, Roland Lescure, said he was in favor of the project of eight new oil drilling in Gironde while a 2017 law provides that the exploitation of hydrocarbons will be gradually banned in France by 2040. Greenpeace France had denounced a “total contradiction with scientific findings” and France’s commitments.