{"id":518,"date":"2025-07-10T13:22:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T11:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geosel.fr\/about-us\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T16:00:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T14:00:40","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.geosel.fr\/en\/about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"About us"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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G\u00e9osel was created in the 1960s to meet a strategic imperative: ensuring the country’s energy security, the importance of which had been highlighted in 1956 by the Suez Canal crisis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With its underground capacity of 9 million m\u00b3, G\u00e9osel is one of the largest hydrocarbon storage facilities in Europe. It provides storages capacities for crude oil, as well as refined products such as diesel, gasoline and naphtha.<\/p>\n

France’s strategic oil reserves must cover at least 90 days of national consumption, and G\u00e9osel holds a significant part of the strategic stocks of the country.<\/p>\n

In addition to G\u00e9osel’s strategic role, the site offers commercial storage services to players in the oil sector, such as refineries, the chemical industry, oil distribution and trading companies.<\/p>\n

As a key element in the oil logistics of south-eastern France, G\u00e9osel storage facilities are connected by piplines to the refineries and petrochemical plants of the Fos\/Berre area, to the Marseilles-Fos harbour (Grand Port Maritime de Marseille) and to three pipeline networks : SPSE, SPMR and ODC, connecting the area to the North of France and beyond. This unique location enables G\u00e9osel to optimize the distribution of hydrocarbons on a French and even European scale.<\/p>\n

Committed to its own energy transition and that of its territory, G\u00e9osel is currently conducting in-depth studies on the evolution of the energy mix and the adaptation of part of its infrastructure to the storage of alternative energies such as hydrogen.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n

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\n 0<\/span>\n <\/div>\n
Million m3
\r\nof storage capacity<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Salt
\r\ncaverns<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Km
\r\nof pipelines<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Saturated
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Pumping
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Millions of m3
\r\nof hydrocarbons transported per year<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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years
\r\nin business<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n \n\n \n
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\n OUR INFRASTRUCTURE
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G\u00e9osel provides hydrocarbons storage capacities in the geological salt layer beneath Manosque and the surrounding area in the Alpes de Haute-Provence region.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The process to create such underground salt caverns involves drilling from the surface down into the salt layer, injecting water into the subsoil and dissolving the salt. G\u00e9osel counts with 30 cavities, which were \u201cleached\u201d in the saline rock at a depth of between 350 and 1,000 meters.<\/p>\n

The liquid created by this leaching – saturated brine – was evacuated and collected in the Lavalduc and Engrenier basins at Fos-sur-Mer (13). Brine is transported betwwen Manosque and the Lavalduc and Engrenier basins through dedicated pipelines.<\/p>\n

For mechanical stability reasons, caverns must be always completely \u00a0filled with liquid. Saturated brine is used to fullfill the free space not occupied by hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons enter and exit the cavities by hydraulic (brine) compensation.<\/p>\n

Because its density is much higher than that of petroleum products, the brine remains in a separate phase from the hydrocarbons: it does not mix with them.<\/p>\n

Compensation movements between the Manosque site and the Lavalduc and Engrenier basins take place as hydrocarbons flow in and out.<\/p>\n

The proximity of an exceptional subsoil, brine storage basins with special properties and a major petrochemicals hub open to the Mediterranean sea has enabled the creation of this storage facility, which is unique in Europe.<\/p>\n

G\u00e9osel holds two mining concessions, a salt mine concession and an underground hydrocarbon storage concession.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n

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Our History<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n \n
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