French Indie Plans 1Q CBM Boost

Francaise de l’Energie (LFDE), which aims to boost the country’s near-zero indigenous gas production, said November 2 that it plans to start marketing power from an existing coalbed methane (CBM) field near Calais starting 1Q 2017 and to test a new CBM well in Lorraine during the same quarter.

Independent LFDE’s loss widened to €4.2mn for the 12 months to June 2016, from a year-before loss of €2.6mn. Its existing CBM production at Avion (in Nord-Pas de Calais) suffered from low prices but it expects these to stabilise in the coming months at €16/MWh gas ($5.15/mn Btu), still quite weak.

CEO Julien Moulin though said an initial public offering in June allowed LFDE to list on the Paris stock exchange and raise €37.5mn, enabling it to complete its acquisitions of Gazonor and Concorde Paris.

CEO Julien Moulin (Source: LFDE)

Generation of electricity from CBM, which Gazonor would produce, is due to start 1Q 2017 with the objective of producing 9 MW from small units by June 2017. French investment fund RGreen Invest has provisionally agreed to lend LFDE up to €60mn at 8% interest to expand its CBM-fired generation, if the government publishes a decree allowing electricity produced from local CBM to be classed as 'green electricity'.

LFDE is about to finish tendering for a drilling contractor and has identified its first drill site in Lorraine, in northeast France, not far from its offices in Forbach. The firm added that it is open to evaluate growth prospects in Belgium and Germany. 

Mark Smedley