Marine Le Pen put the issue of hydrocarbon extraction back on the table during her first campaign meeting on Sunday October 25. “We will abolish, for example, the stupid Hulot law which prohibits the search for hydrocarbons on French soil,” she said. Wishing to break “with the logic of decline” which “is leading France towards underdevelopment and economic ruin”.
On the industry side, “without commenting on Marine Le Pen’s comments”, Ufip Énergies et Mobilités, the professional union in the sector, defends the maintenance of this local production. The “only real request” from Ufip is “to be able to continue to maintain our current deposits” explains Blandine Ruty, general secretary of the union. Indeed, the Hulot law of 2017, adopted two years after the Paris Climate Agreement, prohibits the research and exploitation of hydrocarbons in France and provides for the gradual cessation of their production by 2040.
And for good reason, the share of French oil production in its total consumption is only 1%. The remaining 99% is imported. This production comes mainly from the 64 oil and gas fields still active in 2024, located mainly in the Aquitaine Basin and the Paris Basin. “Reserves are measured according to three levels based on established international standards: 1P proven, 2P probable and 3P possible,” explains Blandine Ruty, secretary of Ufip, which defends the maintenance of this local production. “Each company has its own estimates, but on a national scale, it is very difficult to come up with an overall figure. What we do know is that our proven and exploitable reserves by 2036 amount to 5 million tonnes, which represents the equivalent of 10 years of consumption. »
Matthieu Auzanneau, former director of the energy transition think tank The Shift Project, specifies that “the potential is very uncertain”. He mentions “shale oil in the Paris Basin, perhaps a fraction of French consumption, and it would take several years to be sure”. In other words, if France restarted research - which contradicts the Hulot law of 2017 - there is no guarantee that it would discover sufficient reserves to significantly change its dependence on imports.
But where could these hydrocarbons be hiding?
In 2011, oil was discovered by a consortium in deep waters off the coast of Guyana, 150 kilometers from Cayenne. However, appraisal drilling carried out by Shell and TotalEnergies failed to confirm a commercially profitable deposit. Patrick Pouyanné, boss of TotalEnergies, added that the hydrocarbon giant had “already spent nearly 400 million euros, for a negative result”, since hydrocarbons had been found “in quantities far too small for them to be marketed”. But for the senator from Guyana, contacted by Le Monde, the multinational did not push its research far enough. “It suited him to go to Suriname, where we don’t see the same conditions imposed on us,” he supposes.
This desire to “digger”, to use Donald Trump’s expression, is not new. In 2025, Overseas Minister Manuel Valls said he wanted to “open the debate” on the ban on the exploitation of hydrocarbons in France, sparking opposition from his colleagues from the Environment, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, and from Energy, Marc Ferracci. In December 2025, the senator from Guyana Georges Patient tabled a text to once again authorize the research and exploitation of hydrocarbons in overseas territories, as well as in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. A desire driven by the oil boom in the region (Suriname, Brazil) and particularly in Guyana, a country which has seen its economy transformed by the development, from the end of 2019, of a hydrocarbon deposit off its coast.
The proposal was supported by the Minister of Overseas Territories, Naïma Moutchou, but encountered opposition from the Minister of Ecological Transition, Monique Barbut. It was finally definitively rejected in June by the National Assembly, after criticism from several environmental associations.
An economic mirage incompatible with the climate emergency?
From the discovery of a deposit to its production, exploration and then production operations extend over several decades. The supposed economic benefits of drilling would therefore take years to appear. A timetable completely inconsistent with the Paris agreements and decarbonization at work in France and Europe. On this point, Matthieu Auzanneau could not be clearer: “This is perfectly incompatible with our climate commitments. » The secretary of the Ufip union adds on the contrary that “continuing oil production in France means maintaining responsible economic and industrial activity in the territory and guaranteeing the financing of well closures and reconversion projects in decarbonization”. In the meantime, France will have to choose between the hope of a promising base and the urgency of doing without it.
