Paris, the city of art, history and culture, has in its surroundings, already a few kilometers from the center, a treasure that has nothing to do with the above, but that in economic terms is almost equally valuable. Very few imagine that, very close to their elegant boulevards and his bohemian life, under the cradle of enlightenment and literary romanticism, Several oil deposits are extendedwhose mechanical horses can be glimpsed in a lot, some very close to the Disneyland Paris theme park. For more than a century, the Paris basin has been explored in search of the precious hydrocarbon, becoming one of the few places in the world where oil prospecting has almost lived for decades with urban life, the children’s leisure of Disneyland and some of the cultural icons of the West.
The origin of these deposits lies in The peculiar geology of the torque basinÍS, an extensive depression that covers a significant part of northern France. Over 250 million years, from the Triassic to the present, this basin has accumulated almost uninterrupted a large sediment thickness, in which the necessary conditions for the generation and accumulation of hydrocarbons have occurred. The presence of a mother of oil in the sediments of the lower Jurassic, combined with good stores in Jurassic and Triassic formations, have been key elements in the oil wealth of the basin, according to Jean-Jacques Biteau, Bernard Duval, Jean Laherrere and Jean-Marie Masset, in his article From outcrops to the Champs-Elysées: Petroleum Exploration in the Paris Basin-The Paris Basin, The ‘Island of Francand.
Unlike other large oil basins in the world, that of Paris is not known for its vast reserves, but for its peculiar location and the constancy with which its deposits has been exploited. The greatest concentration of The deposits is located in the Brie regionfamous for its cheeses and their agricultural history, where the thickness of the sedimentary series can reach 3,500 meters.
In the Paris basin, 345 million barrels of proven reservations (2p) have been identified, distributed in 65 oil fields. Of these, 22 have more than 2 million barrels, 8 exceed 10 million, and only 2 contain reservations greater than 50 million barrels. Although production has decreased over the years, the activity is still present in certain fields, some of them located at a short distance from places as iconic as Disneyland Paris or Champagne’s vineyards.
The oil of the early twentieth century
The first attempts to extract oil in the Paris basin date back to the 20s of the last century, when an exploratory well was drilled in Normandy, in the western region of the basin. However, in the absence of oil indications, the exploration was suspended until after World War II. It was in 1951 when the Bureau of Recherches Pétrolières, with the support of the French Petroleum Institute (IFP), began to analyze the area in greater detail. Geological investigations were carried out in outcrops and, for the first time, advanced geophysical data were used to improve the knowledge of their subsoil.
The true oil takeoff arrived in the 50s and 60swhen multiple modest oil fields were discovered, such as Coulommes, Chailly-En-Bière and Villemer, with reserves oscillating between 4 and 16 million barrels of oil. For France, which depended largely on imported oil, these discoveries represented a small respite in their search for energy autonomy.
The 70s and 80s brought new technological advances and a better understanding of the geology of the basin. The drilling of deeper wells and the improvement in the seismic interpretation allowed to find larger deposits. In 1983, the Paris basin saw its largest oil field: Chaunoy, with 90 million barrels of 2p reserves. This finding was a turning point and unleashed an exploratory fever in the region.
However, the proximity of the deposits to Paris, together with the Disneyland Paris project, which opened its doors in 1992, raised a unique dilemma. At a time when the French capital was consolidated as a global metropolis of tourism and culture, oil drilling did not seem to fit with the image of the city of light. In spite of this, this did not prevent an unprecedented seismic acquisition campaign in 1986, during which great vibrating trucks could be seen moving through the Elíseos fields, in the center of Paris, looking for geological structures under the city that could house accumulations of hydrocarbons.
Oil under buildings
The interpretation of the seismic campaign in the center of Paris gave rise to drilling in 1988 of the Ivry-101d well in the Parisian suburbs. It was a diverted well designed to achieve a geological structure under urban buildings. This well produced oil for four years, challenging all expectations about where black gold could be found. In the 90s, a well was even drilled in the town of Versailles, in the vicinity of the Royal Palace, although it was not successful.
Today, there are still fields in production in the Paris basin, although discreetly. The extraction has concentrated on the most productive fields, such as Villeperdue (53 million barrels), Champotran (25 million) and Itteville (26 million). However, Production has decreased over time, and the number of daily barrels has fallen to 7,800 barrels per dayA, which represents a very small fraction of national demand.
Despite its centennial exploration history, the Paris basin still houses secrets without discovering. The existence of rich formations in unconventional oil in the subsoil has generated debates about the possibility of exploiting these resources with new technologies. However, the prohibition of Fracking In France, any attempt to extraction of unconventional hydrocarbons in the region and throughout the country has paralyzed.
However, the subsoil information obtained through oil exploration and production revealed the presence of an aquifer in carbonates of the Jurassic, located at depths of between 1,500 and 2,000 meters, where temperatures are recorded from 55 to 85 ° C. This resource has been key to the development of geothermal projects, allowing to supply heating more than 250,000 homes, mainly in the Paris metropolitan area, says Jorge NavarroVice President of AgGEP (Association of Spanish Geologists and Geophysics of Petroleum) and professor at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, explains in statements to Eleconomista.es.
Champagne and cheese next to oil
Interestingly, the geology of the basin has not only influenced the oil industry, but also in French culture. The sedimentary layers of the Jurassic and the Cretaceous have provided the perfect soils for the production of champagne and cheeses such as the Brie, two of the most iconic products in France. In fact, some of the oil fields of the region share the subsoil with the vineyards that produce the prestigious sparkling wine.
Today, while millions of tourists walk along the Boulevards of Paris, contemplate the Eiffel tower or enjoy the magic of Disneyland Paris, few are aware that, a few kilometers away, The oil fields of the basin are still pumping oil From the bowels of France.
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