Exploration for and Production of Oil and Gas in France: A Review of the Habitat, Present Activity, and Expected Developments

Abstract

Exploration for and production of hydrocarbons in France are at present concentrated in the central part of the Paris Basin, and in the southwest and western part of the Aquitaine Basin. Production in the Paris Basin in 1991 was about 38100 bopd distributed through 50fields, the largest of them being Chaunoy (14800 bopd), Villeperdue (9300 bopd), and Vertle-Grand (3600 bopd). In the Aquitaine Basin, petroleum activity has focused on two distinct areas. To the southwest, along the Pyrenean foothills, exploration of deep and complex traps has resulted in the earl·y discovery of major gas fields, including the Lacq and Meillon gas fields, still pro­ ducing 300 and 108 MMcfpd. To the west of the Aqui­ taine Basin, on the Parentis area, 9700 bopd are produced from less than ten fields, including the Les Arbousiers field discovered at the end of 1991. Exploration is devel­ oping much more slowly in the other sectors of French territory. Mention should be made of: (1) some activity in the Jura thrust belt following the testing of oil in the Cha­ leyriat exploratory well in 1989; (2) marine seismic sur­ veys in the Bay of Biscay across the offshore extension of the Parentis Basin; and (3) the recent interest in coalbed methane in several late Carboniferous basins in eastern and central France.