What’s fracking: Shale gas saga bubbles over the surface

Protesters in Paris on the 10th of May: The day before the Assemblée Nationale voted 287 to 186 on a bill proposed by Christian Jacob, the UMP leader in the lower house, to ban the controversial fracking drilling method. If the bill is ratified by the Sén

This overturned ‘fracking’ permits across the country, one of which was for gas exploration just outside Brignoles in the Var. The process has gained notoriety across America as extremely detrimental to human health and the environment.

Just 12 months after the former ecology minister and potential presidential candidate Jean-Louis Borloo quietly pushed shale gas exploration licenses through parliament, a tidal wave of fury has raged through the French cities and countryside.

Weeks of protests against the shale gas exploitation and exploration spread across France with many taking place in the Var. 75 per cent of the department sits on top of a 6,781 square kilometre shale well, which stretches into the neighbouring Bouches-du-Rhône and Alpes-Maritimes.

The protests have caused a swift change of policy from Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party, who sought to rescind drilling permits awarded a little over a year ago.
Jean-Louis Borloo said during the government’s rethink that “drilling in America shows the manner in which research and exploitation of non conventional hydrocarbons can endanger the population and the environment.”

Trouble over the pond

Much of the backlash was triggered by the release in France on 6th April of Gasland an investigative documentary by the American filmmaker Josh Fox.

Fox's film blew the whistle on a series of devastating humanitarian and environmental catastrophes linked to shale gas extraction, which has seen drinking water in the US become so contaminated that it can be set alight.
Whilst the events that have taken place in America have yet to replicate themselves in France, the warnings have been enough to turn the stomachs of local residents and green activists and have resulted in a u-turn by the Sarkozy administration.

Another Gasland?

In his film Fox travels through Sublette County in Wyoming. Just 6,000 people live in a 12,783 square kilometre area, roughly one person every two kilometres, yet people's welfare has been put at serious risk by air pollutants stemming from gas extraction. With 1.7 million people living in Marseille, Aix-en-Provence and Toulon alone, any potential development in Brignoles could have pre-sented an incomprehensible health hazard.

The energy companies con-tinue to insist that the process is safe, both for the en-vironment and for people living in the area.

"There is a lot of potential for misunderstanding," Martin Schuepbach, CEO of the Texas based energy giant Schuepbach Energy said. "We certainly would not show up anywhere in the world and start to destroy the landscape or poison the ground water. Our intent is to work with local authorities and population and make this a win-win situation," he added.

Surprisingly, amid widespread concerns from one of its member states, the European Union energy commission shares the energy companies' views.

A spokesperson told The Riviera Times that "no evidence exists at present that would allow or require the classi-fication of  shale gas as a dangerous substance."

Schuepbach Energy, which has been in discussions regarding to a joint venture with the French state run gas supplier GDF Suez, was awarded five drilling permits across France including the one in the Var.

Schuepbach told The RT that there were many differences between American and French gas extraction practices.  
"One major difference between US operation and France is that the mineral owners in the US are private, and therefore might result in a more denser drilling (more surface locations) to protect the lease by the oil company. In France the mineral owner is the State, granting large exploration permits and therefore allowing the most efficient drilling, with a minimal surface use."

Despite the effort to minimalise the ground impact it is the implications of the chemical mix that is used in the fracking process that causes the most concern amongst environmentalists and campaigners.

Although the energy companies maintain the line that 99.5 per cent of the 'fracking mix' is sand and water, the remaining 0.5 per cent consists of up to 596 different chemicals. A list of 85 chemicals released by the Pennsylvania department of environmental protection named kerosene, hydrochloric acid and methanol as just some of the products used by the energy companies.

Tracy Bank, a geologist at New York State University found whilst studying the Marcellous shale reserve, which stretches from Ohio to upstate New York, that uranium could be found in wastewater. "Even though at these levels, uranium is not a radioactive risk, it is still a toxic, deadly metal," Bank said. Schuepbach Energy affirms that all wastewater is treated and cleaned before being released back into the eco system.

Searching for independence

Along with Poland, France is thought to have the biggest shale gas reserves in Europe; however the government's decision to revoke the drilling permits may put other countries off exploring and exploiting their own shale wells.

The head of the French energy company Total, Christophe de Margerie said that there would not be the shale revolution in Europe that there has been in the US. Despite this, it was also revealed last month that Total had agreed a deal with ExxonMobil over drilling permits in Poland.

Much of the debate surrounding natural gas exploitation has revolved around France and indeed the rest of Europe's need to become more energy independent. Schuepbach points out that France is currently spending nine billion euros a year importing natural gas from the east.

In light of this call for independence the energy companies seem to have a specifically strong interest in gas exploitation. The French run gas supplier GDF is part of the European Gas Advocacy Forum (EGAF), a pro gas lobby that includes Centrecia, who run British Gas.  

Fixing the figures

The EGAF have come under scrutiny after they allegedly altered figures in a report, suggesting that the European Union could cut 900 billion euros off the 2050 climate change target bill, by investing in gas instead of renewables.     
A source at the European Climate Foundation (ECF) , an independent energy watchdog, told The RT that The EGAF's report produced gas prices that were substantially lower gas prices than predicted by the International Energy Agency in the 2009 World Energy Outlook. "These figures are highly unrealistic. At best you can say that they are highly optimistic," the whistleblower said.

Yet, the European energy commission and the European council appear to have fallen for the gas advocacy's figures. The ECF's whistleblower suggests that the two pan-European bodies have been "proactive in pushing gas technologies and initiatives."

However the EU competition commission said that they were unaware that the EGAF had broken European competition law despite the claims of biased figures by a group determined to promote gas advocacy.
GDF refused to comment on either the EGAF's report or on the French government's decision to ban the fracking process.

Yet as the government's bill doesn't outlaw all forms of shale gas exploitation it remains uncertain what lies ahead for France's energy companies and indeed the environmentalists that seek to repel them.

Tom Donnelly