Chevron set to win Lithuanian shale gas license

U.S. energy giant Chevron is poised to win a license for shale gas exploration in Lithuania, officials in the Baltic state announced Tuesday.

The license is for a field in western Lithuania, an area near the Baltic Sea where several small firms extract a tiny amount of crude oil. Last year Chevron bought a 50 percent stake in one of these firms, LL Investicijos, which owns a license to a neighboring field. Chevron officials have said they hoped to begin exploration work this year.

For Lithuania, shale gas – a form of natural gas trapped underground in porous rock and difficult to extract – represents a rare opportunity to decrease its energy dependency on Russia, which currently supplies all of the Baltic state's gas.

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