The regulatory framework governing this project is a combination of French mining and environmental legislation. Additional provisions are also applicable in anticipation of EU regulations being written into French law.

The local Prefecture gave official authorisation for the Lacq project in May 2009.This authorisation applies for a period of five years: two years of injection and a further three years of storage monitoring.

The authorisation covers injection of a maximum of 120,000 tonnes of CO2, which is far less than the potential storage capacity of the depleted Rousse reservoir.

The project is also required to include a program of surveillance covering all storage facilities.

At the end of the present five-year period the authorisation is to be renewed so that new monitoring parameters can be determined based on the results recorded during the initial five years.