Butkevičius told reporters after meeting with opponents of shale gas exploration plans that they did not speak about suspending the bidding process.
"We spoke that the bidding is underway and that nobody can interfere in it and that nobody is going to sign any contracts in the near future," he said.
Romualdas Ozolas, a signatory to the Lithuanian Act of Independence of March 11, 1990, said that people should voice their opinion about the use of the county's natural resources. He said that shale gas exploration and extraction could only start after a referendum
"We are not speaking about holding a referendum. We believe that this business is not appropriate here in Lithuania, because underground water is much more valuable than any potential benefit from shale gas. If the government does not realize this, then access to this wealth should be given only through the nation's vote in favor of allowing the government to exploit," he said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Remigijus Žemaitaitis, the head of the parliament's Economics Committee, was skeptical about the idea of such a referendum, but he did not reject it categorically.
"I think what is the most important today is that the laws state it clearly whether or not this can be done and that explorers for natural resources must pay normal taxes to the state and what chemicals could be injected into the ground," he told BNS.
The government is expected to decide this spring on whether or not to allow the US energy company Chevron to explore for shale gas in the western part of the country.
Lithuanian scientists believe that the country could have between 30 billion and 50 billion cubic meters of recoverable shale gas. Lithuania imports around 3 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia annually.
