U.S. fossil fuels giant Chevron Corp. (CVX) has submitted a bid to explore and extract shale gas in Lithuania as the Baltic European Union state is keen to ease dependence on Russian supplies, an official said Tuesday.
U.S.
fossil fuels giant Chevron Corp. (CVX) has submitted a bid to explore and
extract shale gas in
Lithuania
as
the Baltic European Union state is keen to ease dependence on Russian supplies,
an official said Tuesday.
Lithuanian-registered Chevron Exploration & Production Lietuva was the only
bidder to prospect a field in western
Lithuania
,
which is believed to have shale gas and shale oil deposits, Juozas Mockevicius,
head of
Lithuania
's
geological survey, told AFP.
Mockevicius said the Baltic nation of 3 million could have from 30 to 50
billion cubic meters of extractable shale gas reserves, compared with 3.4 billion
it imported from
Russia
last
year.
Currently, Russian energy giant Gazprom is
Lithuania
's
sole natural gas supplier.
"Under the terms of the tender, 80 million litas ($31 million) is the
minimum amount of investment," he said.
The tender includes both exploration and extraction rights, but the latter
would require separate approval after in-depth review, Mockevicius said.
The new center-left government of Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius is to
take a final decision on the project following legal procedures, which could
take up to two months, Mockevicius added.
Chevron plans to prospect shale gas in
Lithuania
were
first revealed in October last year when it acquired a stake in a local
company, which has a separate oil field in
Western Lithuania
.
Lithuania
is
also trying to break Gazprom's politically-charged monopoly--a legacy of
Soviet-rule--by constructing a liquefied natural gas terminal which is expected
to start operations by the end of 2014.
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