Brussels, 11/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - While exploratory drilling is not conducted for commercial ends, within the meaning of Community law, assessment of the impact on the environment may be necessary for such drilling to take place, said the Court of Justice of the EU in a ruling (case C-531/13) delivered on Wednesday 11 February.
In Austria, a company was granted a permit to carry out exploratory drilling on the land of a municipality, without having to carry out any studies on the impact of the drilling on the environment. Local residents challenged this permit. The Austrian court hearing the action referred the matter to the Court of Justice to determine whether the directive on the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (85/337/EEC) establishes that exploratory drilling can be said to be for commercial ends and whether its environmental impact has to be assessed.
The Court finds that, within the meaning of the directive, exploratory drilling is not carried out for commercial ends although its purpose is to determine how easily deposits can be mined and, thus, the viability of the deposits. The reason is that extraction of hydrocarbons is very limited, in this particular instance, both in time and in quantities extracted.
Exploratory drilling remains, nonetheless, “deep drilling” and, as such, falls within the scope of the directive. It is, therefore, for national authorities to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether assessment of the effects of a project on the environment is necessary. Any such study should take account of the environmental impact that the proposed drilling may have jointly with other projects, no matter their nature and even if these other projects are carried out outside the municipality. (Jan Kordys)