This paper focuses on some particularly illustrative contributions of oil companies, service and equipment suppliers, research centers from France, to the history of forty years of offshore adventure.
Other advances are still to be expected, and some major trends for the coming decades are discussed.
The importance of France's technological input to offshore industry may surprise since France holds very low oil and gas reserves on its territory. Despite this situation, Elf and Total are in the top 20 of the world's oil companies, the French supply and services industry has developed worldwide activity, Institute Francais du Petrole (IFP) and other research institutions are known internationally for their contribution to the progress of the oil and gas industry.
This situation results from the fact that after World War I the security of energy supply has been recognized by the successive governments of France as a major political issue. Therefore, the necessary impetus has been constantly given to encourage the development of the French oil and gas sector. Under the umbrella of this oil policy, a close cooperation between oil companies, suppliers and research centers has been set up in order to develop competences to take up the new technological challenges. This was clearly the case for offshore activities.
In the early sixties, the geopolitical situation led France to define a new policy, and it was decided to launch an important programme of development in order to diversify the sources of oil supply (Ref. 1). Offshore was still at the infancy. In fact, the first real offshore discovery had been made on November 14, 1947 in the U.S., 15 km off the coast of Louisiana, in a water depth of 6 m (20ft), with congratulations expressed for having surmounted such a "technical difficulty"; but the exploration activity on the continental shelves really started in 1960. In 1965, gas was discovered by BP in the North Sea: the technological challenge of offshore development effectively deserved to be coped with. When the first oil shock occurred, the French industry had developed the necessary background for taking its share in the development of the promising reserves of the European offshore domain.
In this context, the European Commission launched in 1973 a technological program to promote the development of hydrocarbon resources in Europe. During this period of high oil prices, new technologies were studied and tested at the prototype stage with the aim of overcoming the bottlenecks to exploration and production with regard to hardly accessible offshore reserves. French companies have been strongly involved in this adventure and contributed to major issues, as indicated below, while promising international partnerships were initiated.
