Total to Continue French Shale Gas Search

Total SA says that it intends to continue investigations into developing shale gas resources in the southeast of France.

The French major’s disclosure was made as a requirement of legislation governing the exploration and exploitation of shale gas and shale oil adopted by French legislative bodies in July.

The legislation required license holders of prospective shale gas and shale oil concessions to advise the government if they intend to move forth with exploration activities and to declare the technique that would be used.

The use of hydraulic fracturing was banned in the adopted legislation and any companies undertaking the technique used in unconventional hydrocarbon extraction would have its permits revoked.

"The work program described in the report does not use the technique of hydraulic fracturing," Total said.

In March 2010, Total was granted the Montelimar permit covering an area of ​​4,327 km2 along the Rhone to the north of Montpellier, for a period of five years.

Initially, Total plans to complete preliminary studies launched in 2010 to analyze existing data.

Should results so merit, drilling would be conducted to collect rock samples to better determine the hydrocarbon potential of the area.

"No production testing will be done at this stage," said Total.

Total said that confirmation of the presence of a significant accumulation of hydrocarbons would lead to a third phase of exploration, which would be conducted to assess the capacity of reservoirs.

The company did not provide any details on what techniques would be used in that third stage, commenting that it was dependent on the characteristics of hydrocarbon reservoirs and those (techniques that) will be "available and permitted by law" at that time.