Caribbean Review: Dream Of Oil Production In French Guiana Conflicts with French Climate Laws
jonathan gong
Though French Guiana is surrounded by large oil producers, like Suriname, Brazil, and Guyana, prior failures and French policy have halted petroleum extraction in offshore deposits. Some argue that extraction could create jobs and help lift the population out of poverty. France, however, wants to ban all extraction activities by 2040, including in French Guiana.
Former French President Hollande’s administration suspended licenses to drill for oil off the coast of French Guiana in September 2011. At around the same time, a well less than 100 miles off the coast of French Guiana was found, sparking excitement about prospects of around $80 billion worth of oil. This money had the potential to transform French Guiana into a big global oil player, perhaps lift the population out of poverty. However, many also expressed concerns that the drill plan could damage the ecosystem and threaten wildlife.
The French Government attributed the suspensions they imposed to their environmental priorities: due to the depths of the deposits, they would have to implement a highly polluting oil-based mud technique for extraction. The oil-based mud technique is a system in which a drill goes through the seabed and layers of rock beneath, and then is cased with mud and cement to permanently seal a pipe from the rest of the sea floor. When the drill reaches the oil, a blowout preventer (BOP) is installed at the seabed above the casing. High-pressure oil is then shot up and regulated by the BOP, which can seal oil from going up to the rig.
A faulty BOP could lead to disaster on the rig or oil spills. This was the case in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Disaster, where the cement casing was inadequate and the BOP failed to seal the well after too much pressurized oil began rising, leading to an explosion on the rig and one of the worst oil spills and environmental disasters ever recorded.
The recently discovered oil lies within a part of the Guyana-Suriname Basin, located in French Guiana’s territorial waters. Drilling in the basin could impact local ecosystems and communities that rely on fishing for food and business. An oil spill would be devastating to many people’s livelihoods and the environment.
Many Guyanese were in favor of the well-being developed. French Minister of Justice Christiane Tanbira, who is from French Guiana, argued that just half of the expected royalties would grant French Guiana greater autonomy and power. Shell France CEO Patrick Romeo argued the development could provide more jobs, could save money on imported oil to French Guiana, and could be an economic recovery for the territory. Some Guyanese opposed the development, like Coordinator of the NGO French Guiana Nature Environment, Christian Roudge, who said, “Profit will be private and risks will be public”.
Over the past five decades, Shell’s extraction of oil in Nigeria’s Niger Delta has led to significant harm to local communities and the environment. Since the drilling began, over 1.5 million tons of oil have been spilled into the Niger Delta, contaminating soil and water sources used for fishing, farming, and drinking. This spill has been associated with increased cancer rates, illnesses, and serious health problems for locals. A series of August 2025 UN reports found that a community was drinking water with benzene, a very flammable and toxic chemical compound found in crude oil, at levels 900 times higher than the World Health Organization’s safety guidelines.
Shell has faced lawsuits over human rights violations, like complicity in executions and torture against protesters against the company’s practices and presence. Shell has been told by the Nigerian government to stop practices like gas flaring, a process where natural gas produced alongside oil extraction is burned off to have purer oil. The process releases significant amounts of greenhouse gases like methane and black carbon, as well as dangerous air pollutants like benzene and nitrous oxides; however, Shell simply opts to pay the fines instead. Some other examples include Chevron’s dumping of over 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater and millions of gallons of crude oil in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Exxon Valdez spill that ravaged Alaskan native populations who relied on fishing.
French Guiana has the lowest reported gross domestic product (GDP) of any of France’s regions, and over half of the population lives below the poverty line. Many oil companies are also hesitant to push the French Government for any French Guyanese drilling. The time cap placed on that extraction would have to be complete before the 2040 complete ban on extraction in French territories has also been a turn off for oil companies that would possibly invest in the drilling.
Though some in the French and French Guianese local government, oil companies, and those in support of extraction argue that the possible extraction in French Guiana’s territorial waters could bring an economic boom to the territory, there has been little success in pursuing extraction. Environmentalist in the French Government hold strong on their ban on all extractions by 2040 and show no change in their attitude toward drilling. Activists in French Guiana have also not faltered in their stances opposing oil companies entering the territory and possibly exploiting the communities that depend on the environment for food and commerce.
