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Sekmokas: Lithuania must tap its shale gas resources

Petras Vaida, BC, Vilnius, 16.05.2011.Print version
Lithuania should do all it can to extract natural gas from its shale rock layers, Energy Minister Arvydas Sekmokas said on Friday.

Arvydas Sekmokas in Washington, 11.05.2011. Photo: enmin.lt

"I will propose to the government to take immediate steps to make shale gas extraction in Lithuania a reality," Sekmokas, who is visiting the United States this week to talks with industry experts, said in a statement.

 

He underlined that Lithuania is estimated to have sufficient reserves of gas trapped in shale – sedimentary rock containing hydrocarbons – to cover its needs for between 30 and 50 years, reports LETA/ELTA, referring to AFP.

 

Though generally more expensive to extract than conventional natural gas, it is seen as a way to cut dependence on imports.

 

Lithuania relies entirely on Russia for its gas, a legacy of its time as a Soviet republic.

 

The small Baltic nation's relations with Moscow have remained rocky since it won independence from the Kremlin as the Soviet Union unravelled in 1991.

 

Vilnius is locked in a market-reform dispute with Russian gas giant Gazprom, which besides being its supplier also owns a stake in Lithuania's gas distribution network.

 

Lithuania is also planning to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on its coast in a drive to diversify suppliers.






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