Oil shale: Journey to the Land of Black Gold, 60 km from Paris "Article" OWNI, Digital Journal
http://owni.fr/2011/02/25/huile-de-schiste-voyage-au-pays-de-lor-noir-a-60kms-de-paris-gaz-de-schiste-balkany-petrole/
[about Nathalie Kosciusko-Toreador, Vermilion
BY SYLVAIN Lapoix (TEXT) AND ROMAN Saillet (SON) THE February 25, 2011 435 REACTIONS
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In Paris, there was no oil. In any case not less than 60 miles from Notre Dame. We must go to the east, beyond Meaux and La Ferte-sous-Jouarre, ignore muffled forest hamlets along the D204, go after the string of old farms Butheil The direction Rebai and slow down to look carefully right slope surrounded by four wooden posts.
Here Toreador, oil company owned by the investment fund's brother Patrick Balkany, hopes to make a fortune by pulling oil shale layers under the top of the Brie. And so far the Ministry has done nothing to curb his ambitions. Especially not prevent the locals!
For them to learn it took a lot of luck and a national debate launched by the revelation of massive exploration in the South of France for the extraction of shale gas. In recent days, however, the movement of trucks have calmed down in Seine-et-Marne: history to defuse an explosive controversy during the campaign for district elections, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet asked stopping operations throughout France until 15 April. A pause. At the town hall Doue, on whose territory Toreador has installed one of its three platforms of the department (for those who are known), a letter was received from the Prefecture in mid-February announcing the arrival of vehicles and resumes for the day after the end of the "moratorium" imposed by the Minister. Nothing unusual in this little corner of the Seine-et-Marne, where all stages of the procedure have been carefully concealed from the residents and elected officials.
orders "from above"
In September, while representatives of the Association for Environment and Heritage in Doue participated in discussions on the Grenelle II Borloo signed the ministerial order allowing Toreador to explore: under the "permit Chateau Thierry, the company is assigned an area of 779 km between horse Aisne, Seine-et-Marne and Marne notified by the Ministry and prefectures. Locally, it is only through a letter sent to the town hall Doue early August 2010 we are informed of the arrival of bulldozers in the fall.
response to requests for information the Mayor, the County turned a deaf ear to calls for "orders from above". In early September, a record comes to the town hall: the retail operations that will begin in the coming months, signed Toreador. Only oblivion: Annex 3, which describes the technique of hydraulic fracturing, considered irrelevant in a file describing exploration. Not so inappropriate that it makes as the Mining Code defines the exclusive license for research (PER-H for "oil") as authorizing the same extraction and marketing of products extracted.
is going lunch in a restaurant Doue two activists learn the existence of a second platform for oil exploration.
Gathered at a restaurant in Doue to prepare a meeting on the issue, Caroline and Pierre Pinet Doerler, activists close to Europe ecology, are interrupted in their discussion by the boss, "he had lunch with employees Toreador that he had noticed as they almost all spoke English, "recalls Pierre Doerler. One who spoke French to him explained that a platform was being mounted on the territory of the municipality of Jouarre. We took our car to check and found the construction equipment now preparing the platform. "When
OWNI team visited the platform Jouarre Thursday, February 16, the bulldozers had deserted, leaving a muddy field in plan of a hectare slope surrounded on three sides by the middle of which sat a wooden stake and a metal rod blue. Parked along the road, an employee of the Departmental Direction of Equipment and a group of employees Toreador kindly welcomed us before leaving. "The mayor of Jouarre came on site for a stay of operations," we explained it to city hall. But the real decision came "from above". "Pursuant to the request of the Minister, the work was suspended, we are told in the prefecture. We do not rule on the subject: we are only relaying the news of the Ministry on the issue. "
And the minister's answers are sometimes full of surprises.
fracturing in a water tower in the Ile-de-France
is by reading an annex to the letter from the Minister requiring the cessation of exploration that local activists discovered a reference to a decree dated February 12, 2009. The order authorizes the company Vermillion, owner of the old oil wells ESSO Champotran (about fifteen miles south of Doue), injecting into the ground 220 000 cubic meters of water per year until 2010 and 145 000 cubic meters thereafter. "The amounts of water left no doubt: they had to carry out hydraulic fracturing in old oil wells, has quickly found Caroline Pinet. Wells 'classic' it does not go beyond 800 meters, it is sufficient to reach the layer of shale and drilling continue to crank up bedrock before the break to recover hydrocarbons.
But the source cited is not any ground water: running under a third of the Seine-et-Marne, the "web of Champigny" provides, according to public ownership Eau de Paris, the water needs drinking 10% of Parisians and many towns in the Small and Large crown or words at the bottom a few hundred thousand people. A daunting task for a source that, for several years and is constantly "threshold of crisis reinforced," the highest alert level drought forcing residents to restrictions pumping industrial and agricultural consumption restrictions, etc.. By puncturing in this reservoir, drilling projects tap into an oasis on the edge of desertification, the exhibitor also due to the method of hydraulic fracturing to leakage of pollutants (antibiotics, anti-corrosive, etc..) Mixed with the liquid injected in the soil.
Un « triangle des Bermudes » politique
Au fin fond du Languedoc ou dans les gorges de l'Ardèche, l'absence de personnalité politique d'envergure nationale en dehors de José Bové a longtemps expliqué le silence entourant le dossier. But in this stretch of the Seine-et-Marne, executives of the UMP are redundant : The boss of the UMP, Jean-Francois Cope, is deputy mayor of Meaux (6th district), while his successor as president of the parliamentary group, Christian Jacob, is representative of the fourth constituency of Seine-et-Marne to the Assembly. A duo completed by the presence in the 5th district of Seine-et-Marne Franck Riester, head of the European campaign including the party president. "It's the Bermuda Triangle of politics here," says Marie-Francois Lepetit, candidate for the Left Front in the Township of Rebai where the town of Doue.
face it, Chain-Anne Larcombe (daughter of former President of the General Council of Seine-et-Marne, Jacques Larcombe) represents the majority, with the main support Christian Jacob. Asked at the launch of his campaign on oil exploration in the township, the candidate said he learned the business "in the newspapers," followed by his fellow MP. As rapporteur of the Grenelle Environment, Christian Jacob would it have been kept out of discussions with the ministry of oil companies? The answer will probably be given after the local elections.
In the meantime, watch associations: pops up in the mist, the derrick of the platform Doue disappeared overnight. Still, a tube section and a prefabricated house to keep her company and a security officer who receives full-time "from time to time about the visit of employees Toreador. Excluded from the decision process, the municipalities are trying to do is private, like all elected regional or general, the least decision making power on the progress of surveys. "The employees of the prefecture have already complained about not having been in the loop" says one general council. I hardly territories will benefit, "less than 10 cents per barrel," said Will we in Doue: the land belongs to the state and only farmers who have signed concessions affect the direct benefits of these projects.
Meanwhile, Julien Balkany displays its ambitions in the press: previously dispersed, Toreador has refocused all activities in France and boasts of "relocate". His goals for the Paris Basin have something to dream fuel pumps 4.5 million tons of crude per year.
Saudi Arabia, you are told.
Photo: Sylvain Lapoix. Illustrations: Marion Boucharlat
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