Toreador, Hess to Proceed with Drilling

Toreador Resources and its partner Hess, still plan to conduct exploration drilling of oil shale in the town of Doue (Seine-et-Marne) after April 15th.

In the letter addressed to the inhabitants of Doue, the two companies say that shale oil exploration "is neither dangerous nor environmentally destructive."

On Wednesday, March 3, the City Council of Doue voted unanimously for a motion to suspend the oil shale exploration project, according to the website of the municipality.

Toreador and Hess claim that they need to proceed in order to test the exact nature of the buried rock, its porosity, all of its geological and environmental conditions. "

The drilling carried out "will be standard as there are hundreds in the region, using the same techniques employed for over half a century and within a strict framework of environmental preservation," according to the partners, to identify "if the land contains enough oil to said oil + rock + which can be exploited in conditions that respect the environment."

"It is from the April 15 (...) that such drilling could begin," indicate the companies, after the presentation of progress report on gas and oil shale requested by the Government in full controversy over the exploitation of these deposits.

Drilling of this hole was originally scheduled in March.

Toreador and Hess had committed early February with the government to defer the drilling of their wells after submission of progress report and not to undertake hydraulic fracturing before delivering the final conclusions of the report scheduled for late May.

Source: Romandie News (in French)