VILNIUS, Jan 15: The US fossil fuels giant Chevron has submitted a bid to explore and extract shale gas in Lithuania as the Baltic EU state is keen to ease dependence on Russian supplies, an official said on Tuesday.

Lithuanian-registered Chevron Exploration & Production Lietuva was the only bidder to prospect a field in western Lithuania which is believed to have shale gas and shale oil deposits, Juozas Mockevicius, head of Lithuania’s geological survey, told AFP.

Mockevicius said the Baltic nation of three million could have from 30 to 50 billion cubic metres of extractable shale gas reserves, compared to 3.4bn it imported from Russia last year.

Currently, Russian energy giant Gazprom is Lithuania’s sole natural gas supplier.

“Under the terms of the tender, 80m litas (23.2m euros) is the minimum amount of investment,” he said. The tender includes both exploration and extraction rights, but the latter would require separate approval after in-depth review, Mockevicius explained.

The new centre-left government of Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius is to take a final decision on the project following legal procedures which could take up to two months, Mockevicius added. —AFP