This decision effectively ends the exploration license off the Scattered Islands, a French archipelago located in the Mozambique Channel. On Thursday, the French government announced that it had definitively ended maritime oil drilling in France.
The executive has thus "refused to extend the exclusive offshore exploration license of Juan de Nova Maritime Profond , located off the Scattered Islands", and "there will therefore no longer be any drilling of oil at sea in France" , said Élisabeth Borne and Bruno Le Maire, ministers of the Ecological Transition and the Economy, in a joint press release.
Presumed to be rich in hydrocarbons, the Scattered Islands are located between Madagascar and Mozambique, in Africa. This archipelago whose land area represents approximately 7 km2 is the subject of a lively territorial quarrel between Paris and Antananarivo. This decision comes a year after the abandonment of the “Guyana Maritime” offshore exploration license, off the coast of Guyana.
64 oil and gas fields in operation
The executive passed a law in 2017 prohibiting the issuance of any new hydrocarbon exploration license in France. As the text is not retroactive, this prohibition does not apply to requests that have already been filed and are under consideration.
In addition to the end of exploration, the 2017 text provides for the gradual cessation of the exploitation of hydrocarbons by 2040, in order to "get France out of fossil fuels". Beyond this date, the existing concessions cannot therefore be renewed. According to the ministry, 64 oil and gas deposits are currently in operation in France, mainly in the Aquitaine Basin and in the Paris Basin, for a total area of 4000 km2. France's oil production represents 1% of its consumption.
"Large gas projects" in Mozambique
But while French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is expected to arrive in Mozambique on Saturday, Friends of the Earth pointed out on Thursday that "French operators, including Total, are developing large gas projects there, supported financially by public authorities through export financing ”.
“We are once again witnessing the government's double-sided ecology. Today, they announce the refusal to extend a research license off the Scattered Islands. Tomorrow, Jean Yves Le Drian is traveling to Mozambique to defend the interests of the French fossil industry, ”reacted Cécile Marchand, climate campaign manager for Friends of the Earth.
