The government will consider the issue on Monday.
“The government asked us to give our opinion, so we put forward two options – either to terminate the tender or to continue its procedures. The ministry and I personally believe that the tender should continue after amending certain legal acts,” Environment Minister Valentinas Mazuronis told BNS on Friday.
The option of terminating the tender had been put forward in the light of emotional response of the public to exploration prospects, he said. However, Mazuronis did not rule out a possibility that the decision to cancel the tender might lead to legal disputes over unfulfilled expectations.
“It is for the government to take decisions. I don’t know, I cannot say what the decision will be. We are the owners of our country and everything will be as we decide,” the minister told BNS.
Chevron has won a tender to explore for shale gas in the western part of Lithuania. Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius earlier said that the shale gas exploration tender would not be suspended and Chevron, its winner, would also be given a possibility to extract gas in the future.
Lithuania is now fully dependent on Russia’s Gazprom for its gas supplies.
