Shale gas exploration work has already been done in the nearby districts of Šilutė and Klaipėda.
One thousand land parcels in Tauragė district are to be explored for shale gas. However, residents of the villages of Žygaičiai, Aukštupiai, and Sartininkai vow not to allow shale gas explorers onto their land.
Juozas Mockevičius, the director of the Lithuanian Geological Service, told Lietuvos Rytas that people must give explorers full freedom to prospect for gas. As the subsoil is legally owned by the state, local residents could block production, but not exploration, he said.
It is estimated that Lithuania could have have shale gas reserves worth 70 billion litas (EUR 20.3b) and that the country's recoverable reserves could be sufficient to meet its gas needs for some 30 to 50 years.
