Paris mayor warns oil project could threaten city's water supply

Paris city council has denounced a project to drill for oil some 80km south-east of the French capital as a potential environmental disaster. Its water board has gone to court in a bid to stop the works, which it says could threaten the city's drinking water.

Eau de Paris, the Parisian water agency, filed an urgent request to suspend the permit for the project to expand an existing drilling site near the town of Nonville.

A local administrative court is expected to decide whether to issue an emergency stay shortly.

Some 180,000 people in Paris and the surrounding region get their drinking water from nearby drainage areas, the water agency said – warning that the extra drilling would put the capital's supply at risk.

In a statement released this week, the office of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo denounced the project – which was authorised by the national government – as "an environmental catastrophe in the making, at a time when water resources are facing more and more threats".

Fossil fuel phase-out

French company Bridge Energies has held a lease to drill for hydrocarbons at Nonville since 2009, in an area limited to 10km².

It has been seeking authorisation to expand the site for several years, despite local opposition.

In December 2023, the national government issued a decree granting permission for drilling on an extra 40km² and two more wells on top of the three already in place.

Environmental activists condemned the decision to authorise new fossil fuel projects, which Greenpeace France said was "in total contradiction" with the government's commitments to phase out highly polluting energy sources.

Questioned about the Nonville project in parliament this week, Industry Minister Roland Lescure said the site had been authorised to operate until 2034 – six years before the deadline the government has set for ending all fossil fuel production in France.

He added that the expansion project was subject to strict conditions, including close monitoring of chemicals used and any impact on water quality.

The greater Paris area accounts for two-thirds of all France's oil production, the remainder coming from the Gironde department in the south-west.

According to Bridge Energies, which has not commented publicly on the latest opposition to its project, only one of its three wells at Nonville is currently in operation, producing the equivalent of 75 barrels of oil a day.