“I think we will appeal to international organizations, such as Greenpeace, also, we will notify the neighboring countries about the situation in Lithuania, will inform the Scandinavian countries, which give money for nature’s protection in Lithuania. We have to contact all countries of the region since the entire ecosystem of the Baltic region will be shaken if our water is polluted,” Jonas Nairanauskas, the chairman of the Žygaičiai community, told BNS.
He expected Greenpeace to consider the problem with shale gas in Lithuania and to use its leverage in order to prevent the extraction of shale gas. “It’s a powerful organization, I hope they recognize that what we have is a problem of global scale.”
The ruling coalition on Tuesday decided to proceed with the shale gas tender and agreed that the tender commission of the Environment Ministry should announce Chevron the winner of shale gas exploration and extraction tender on September 16.
Chevron wants to explore for shale gas in Šilutė-Tauragė field of 1,800 square meters in western Lithuania. This territory borders the town of Žygaičiai with the population of 600.
Early this year, representatives of the Žygaičiai community stated that they had not been notified about shale gas exploration plans. They warned that shale gas extraction might lead to pollution of drinking water and could do harm to the ecosystem. Later the community staged pickets and organized conferences claiming that Chevron’s global activities showed that it did not comply with environmental requirements.
