According to the European Parliamentary Research Service (“EPRS”), France has the second largest shale reserves in Europe after Poland.1 The EIA estimates that France has 137 trillion-cubic feet (“tcf”) of technically recoverable shale gas resources.2 The country’s most prominent shale reserves are located in several regions including the Paris Basin and the South-East Basin.3 These reserves are unlikely to be developed in the near term, however, because hydraulic fracturing has been banned by the French Government since 2011.4
More recently, France has begun to explore legal means through which it could ban the importation of shale gas from the United States. Critics of the potential ban have called it “unworkable,” as convention and unconventional gases are typically mixed to together during transportation.
Also, they were talking about oil in the article, but I’d point out that natural gas is also available via use of hydraulic fracturing.
https://www.velaw.com/shale-fracking-tracker/resources/france/