The development of shale gas in Europe could help the continent obtain better deals from its current key supplier, the Russian giant Gazprom, E.U. Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said on Friday.
The development of shale gas in
Europe
could
help the continent obtain better deals from its current key supplier, the
Russian giant Gazprom, E.U. Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said on
Friday.
"I am sure (that) to have some shale gas option is a good instrument for
our long-term negotiations (with) Gazprom and
Russia
,"
Oettinger told journalists in the Lithuanian capital
Vilnius
.
Success with shale gas in the
U.S.
has
encouraged exploration in several E.U. states including the
U.K.
,
Poland
and
Hungary
.
Lithuania
is
also considering an exploration deal with Chevron.
Oettinger insisted that Gazprom, currently
Lithuania
's
sole natural gas supplier, was charging the Baltic nation, a Soviet republic
until 1990, up to 40% more than the market price in
Germany
.
"It is not acceptable," Oettinger said. "At the end of the
story, we need a common price from
Lisbon
to
Vilnius
, from
London
to
Athens
,"
he added.
While
Lithuania
imported 3.3 billion cubic metres (117 billion cubic feet) of natural gas from
Russia
last
year, officials in
Vilnius
insist they could be sitting on more than 10 times that amount of extractable
shale gas reserves.
Lithuanian lawmakers are considering new laws which would strengthen
environmental regulations after protests erupted over hydraulic fracturing, or
"fracking," a controversial technology used to extract gas from
shale.
Critics deem it a threat to both the environment and to human health.
Global energy giants ExxonMobil and
Marathon
oil
dropped shale gas exploration in neighboring
Poland
after
finding that its deposits were too deep to extract using conventional fracking.
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, and is considering a gas pipeline to
neighbouring
Poland
.
Oettinger also said he expected
Lithuania
to
take a final decision on a new nuclear power plant by the end of the year,
following talks with Baltic neighbors
Latvia
and
Estonia
.
In October, Lithuanian voters rejected the nuclear plan in a non-binding
referendum. Last month the government said they would resume talks, but would
seek better terms.
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