Doris Leblond
OGJ Correspondent
PARIS, Sept. 9 -- Three European institutes—Potsdam-based GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences, France's Institut Francais du Petrole (IFP), and Holland's TNO—are establishing a consortium of 15-16 university institutes and energy centers to be launched in late September to carry out a 6-year program to map possible gas shale sites in various European countries.
IFP Francois Laurant, project manager at IFP in charge of basin modeling, told OGJ that in France, deposits could be found in the Aquitaine basin, most likely in source rocks of oil fields; in the Southern Alps area in southeastern France; and the Paris basin.
He said there are black shale fields rich in organic sedimentary matter in England, southern Sweden, Ukraine, Poland, and elsewhere in Europe. There is no specific data, he said, but the research program involves a number of targets.
The €6 million program is being financed by BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Devon, and others. He said particular exploration methods—which the consortium does not yet have—would be needed.
