Protest Signs and Smoke Bombs

Public concerns over shale gas in France come to life

It came as a complete surprise on the second day of the event.

A small assembly of French anti shale gas protesters, consisting of a few dozen people with signs, blocked the main entrance to the hotel where the European Unconventional Gas Summit Paris 2011 was being held.

The demonstrators set off a yellow smoke bomb and their presence prevented anyone from going in or out of the Marriot Hotel. Police eventually allowed reporters and other conference participants into the building, but some were taken aback.

Given that sentiment, one of the topics from the first day of the Summit looked incredibly prescient: How will unconventional gas overcome environmental and public concerns?

Partners from international law firm Herbert Smith LLP, Nina Bowyer and Bertrand Montembault promised to deal with the issue from a French perspective.

Ms. Bowyer noted that natural gas made up 14-15% of the energy makeup in France and that gas supplies were fairly diverse, from places like Norway, the Netherlands, Algeria and Russia.

She spoke about the availability of information on shale gas concession permits in France, using a map from Google, which she admitted was not entirely accurate but was easily accessible to the public. “The six key permits are in the south of France,” Bowyer explained. “I want to show you this because there’s a general interest and high degree of perceived public awareness of what shale gas is about. We need to address this.”

The environmental drawbacks, she said, included contamination of groundwater by fracturing fluids through subsurface migration. “The remaining 1-2% of chemicals causes concern. It’s impossible to get it all out.”

Subsurface contamination was possible, she said, via natural occurring faults.

Still, Bowyer admitted that shale basins were much deeper than water reservoirs.

“Casing failure comes up quite frequently,” she said, referring to the housing of the well bore used in drilling for oil and gas. “My understanding is that the incidents have not been due to the fracking process, but from things that are familiar to the industry.”

Storage and disposal of waste was a huge concern, according to Bowyer, as was the availability of disposal wells at shale gas sites.

“Local waste water treatments are insufficient or not able to handle high saline content. Are we going to have pits or tanks?” she asked. “So industry needs to find what is the best way to store that water.”

Using huge amounts of water is a concern in Europe where there’s a shortage, according to Bowyer.

She said land use was also a sticking point: “You need a high density of wells, 6,000 square meters, about one third the size of EuroDisney Paris. But it’s not just wells, but infrastructure, trucks back and forth, water and other materials, and these are sensitive issues in highly populated areas.”

Bowyer also noted that the hype for shale gas could be potentially diverting investment from other renewable resources.

Her colleague Bertrand Montembault spoke about how the French legal system could address some of the issues she mentioned. He said, “Shale gas has become quite a sensitive issue in France, and members of the green movement have criticized it and are asking for a moratorium on drilling.”

Mr. Montembault said there were no specific provisions for dealing with shale gas in France. “Mineral resources are vested with the state. It’s a pure concessionaire system.”

He mentioned issues which could result in the adaptation of regulations in France, such as surface areas, including the fact that producers need to retain large areas. “What if there are conventional resources above the unconventional? That could prevent another operator from exploiting,” hypothesized Montembault.

“It is unlikely that the French government will change regulations until the resource is actually exploited. Under French mining legislation, mines are not subjected to environmental code. Governing use of water will be made under the mining code, so if you get judgment you don’t need to go to the Ministry of Environment.”

Montembault said that there were allegations in France that the local populations potentially affected by shale gas had not been consulted, but contended that was not entirely true.

He noted that a favourable tax regime had played a key role in the success of shale gas in the US. “In France it’s very favourable at the moment, and this could serve as an incentive,” he explained, adding, “There is no guarantee of stability, no contract with the state. If huge revenues were generated, this situation would likely be changed.”

Nina Bowyer made mention of some of the EU rules that could potentially come into play concerning shale gas development in France, including the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, which she said must be followed before a production license is granted; and the Water Framework Directive, required to monitor water quality and aimed at reducing pollutants in it.

She also discussed the European Natura 2000 biodiversity program and said that a lot of property in the south of France bore the designation, and many such sites designated sites had exploration permits for shale development.

“Issues of addressing public concern are going to be high,” said Bowyer. “It’s going to change the environmental impact that you do, and the money set aside for cleanup. You must take into consideration how your project is going to affect that local site.”

She spoke of development of best practices. “Can the industry get to something similar to an ISO standard? In terms of winning public confidence, this increases if people know the measures are clearly defined.”

“Avoiding an environmental issue is to have the best people to do the job,” added Bowyer. “It will be interesting to see if there is a big move of qualified crew to Europe.”

Bowyer suggested one form of transparency to provide access to the public.

“Entrepreneurial companies bring a wealth of experience to shale gas operations,” she stated. “Can we create a publicly accessible database and let interested communities go on and see the chemicals being used and the timeline for that project?”

She also suggested a “grievance procedure” for local communities to engage with drilling operations directly.

“Europe exploration permits 3-5 years,” concluded Ms. Bowyer, “so you don’t have the benefit of time - the sooner we can get reports, and industry awareness is made available it will affect financial decisions regarding shale gas in France.”