France Mulls Clean Alternative to Fracking

France’s Parliament came out with a report on “Alternative techniques to hydraulic fracturing for the exploration and exploitation of unconventional hydrocarbons” after one year of investigation. 

The report released on Wednesday was welcomed by ecorpStim, a subsidiary of the Australia-based eCORP group created in 2012 with the objective to propose to European countries alternative technologies to hydraulic fracturing. 

The authors of the Parliamentary report noted that “alternative technologies are more developed than currently believed in France” starting with propane stimulation, qualified as an “operational and promising alternative technique”. 

According to ecorpStim, pure propane stimulation (PPS) is currently the only operational technique for extracting unconventional hydrocarbons without any water or chemical additives.

‘The environmental impact of the extraction process is thereby profoundly reduced,’ reads a note released by ecorpStim, which developed the technique.

In the while, France rejected a request by Hess Corp to explore for shale oil and gas near Paris.