„We proposed that our committees should meet and speak about extraction of shale gas,“ Gedvilas told BNS in a telephone interview from the Polish capital.
Poland has already issued over 100 licenses for shale gas prospecting, in addition to a few dozen of test boreholes made in the country. Warsaw expects to start commercial extraction in 2015. In January, Ukraine signed a 10 billion US dollar contract with Shell oil company and hopes to open shale gas extraction within the coming decade.
„We should see how they're doing and the environmental effects, the contracts they have signed, the compensations to the state that owns the depths,“ the parliamentary speaker said. He is in Warsaw to attend the assembly of Lithuanian, Polish and Ukrainian parliaments.
Shale gas is extracted on a mass scale in the United States, while shale gas projects in Europe have drawn strong opposition from environmentalists saying that hydraulic fracturing used for extraction of shale gas is hazardous for the environment.
Lithuania's government should shortly decide on a permit for shale gas exploration for US company Chevron in western Lithuania. Lithuania currently receives all gas from the Russian concern Gazprom.
