3.2 Will an opposition of a landowner have a bearing on the process of granting a license for exploration, exploitation or power plant?
(a) Low temperature geothermal resources (<150°C) (Decree No. 78-498 dated 28 mars 1978):
The opposition of a landowner may have a bearing on the occupancy rights of a license holder and on the rights of the latter to perform works. But such opposition can be overcome through expropriation. Concerning the granting of licenses, as indicated above, our understanding is that, in most cases, landowner’s consent is not required for the granting of a licenses itself, although licenses and landowner’s consent is generally sought simultaneously by license applicants. In particular, it should be noted that:
French law provides details on the numerous pieces of information to pass on to the competent authority when applying for a license. Some elements are common to exploration and exploitation; some are specific to one type of license.
4. Criteria for granting of a license 4.1 What documents need to be submitted and what are the criteria for obtaining an exploration or exploitation license? As a general comment, in all cases, the applicant must prove its technical and financial capacities: this is a requisite for a company to be granted an exploration and/or an exploitation license. For each license category, the application filings must include (but are not limited to) the documents listed below.
•
• • • • • •
Identification documents of the applicant; in particular, the identity of the shareholders with a share exceeding 10% of the applicant’s capital; Documents justifying technical and financial capacities of the applicant company; Duration of the license applied for; Works’ schedule; Information on potential impact of works, exploration and exploitation on the quality of groundwater; Official map; Exploitation rates (volumes d’exploitation) contemplated.
FRANCE
Landowner’s consent must be sought to perform drillings or place machines or facilities on his/her property (Article L. 153-1 of the Mining Code): as indicated above, if the landowner’s consent cannot be obtained, an authorisation by the competent authority may be obtained for high temperature resources (but not for low temperature resources); Neighbouring landowner’s consent may be required for the exploration of some high temperature resources in some cases (Article L. 153-2 of the Mining Code); when their consent is not required (i.e. for low temperature resources), such neighbouring property owners directly receive notice of the public inquiry (Article L. 124-6 of the Mining Code – on the public inquiry, see below). Finally, please note that the landowner may (as any interested third party) challenge any licenses (including concerning exploration, exploitation, power plants or works) before administrative courts; as the case may be, he/she can ask for and obtain a suspension and/or cancellation of a procedure or license.
(i) Common provisions applicable to exploration and exploitation licenses
(ii) Exploration licenses:
• • • •
If the exploration license concerns drilling operations (forage) the location of which can be determined: Characteristics (location, use, depth, etc.) of each drilling; Geological structure (horizon géologique) in which the capture/injections are to be carried out; Submission document (mémoire) justifying the two previous elements; Thermal power (puissance thermale) to be extracted and other technical characteristics.
If the exploration license concerns a perimeter: • Limits and surface area of this perimeter, and departments/municipalities on which it is included; • Exploration programme contemplated (indicating the maximum number of drillings and geological structure); • Minimum financial contribution (effort financier minimal) to be affected to the exploration; 47