EurActiv: What is the future for shale gas in Lithuania?

One year ago, Lithuania’s Prime Minister made no effort to encourage Chevron to stay and explore the possibility to develop shale gas in the country. Today the country may regret it.

One year ago, on 8 October 2013, US energy giant Chevron, which had won the competition for exploring and digging into Lithuania’s shale gas deposits, announced it was leaving the country. To this Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius responded: if you want to leave, then leave. The market is big, others will come.

A year has passed. New energy companies did not come. Chevron has just sold its stake in LL Investicijos, and closed the office in Vilnius. This October, the prime minister went to the United States, trying to attract new investors in shale mining in Lithuania. At first it was announced by his press service. It seems to have had no effect, because the focus of reports from the trip is on permissions to import Lithuanian meat. Of course, this deal does not have anything to do with the PM’s visit, it had been in preparation for a long time already and a number of procedures are still to be completed. But it is necessary to cover up the silence in which the prime minister‘s attempt to find investors melts.
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