100 Years of Exploration in the Paris Basin

100 years ago, started the story of oil exploration in the Paris Basin started. Indeed, this exploration began in 1923 and became quickly a tremendous driver of technical innovations. It faced significant technical challenges, particularly for structural characterization due to very challenging problem of the seismic imaging. Recently, new technics (particularly for seismic processing and drilling) found solutions to these problems, revealing real potential for the future, albeit hindered by recent political decisions. Nevertheless, it has left a substantial wealth of subsurface data that offers new possibilities for exploration and exploitation for other resources (Hydrogen, gas storage, CCUS, geothermal energy…). But the success of the exploration of these new resources will depend on the capacity of companies conducting the exploration to learn from the past and overcome the technical challenges posed by this unique basin.