Lithuania announced that US energy firm Chevron won the tender for shale gas exploration. The government of the Baltic state made the announcement on its Twitter account. The tender was for exploration of unconventional hydrocarbons in western Lithuania. The location of the exploration site is on the Silute-Taurage prospect. Experts in Lithuania said the prospect could harbor up to 80 billion cubic meters of shale gas reserves. The experts said that these reserves were technically recoverable.

Chevron was the only bidder for the tender. Previously, the decision to declare Chevron the winner for the tender was postponed. Lithuanian authorities wanted to make sure that the energy company would still be willing to invest in the project even if the parliament would make the shale gas exploration and production procedures more stringent. After a meeting with representatives from Chevron two months ago, Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius announced that the company would still invest in the project.