Education and Science, Energy, Legislation, Lithuania

The samples were taken from rock at different depths of at least 1.2 km, Lithuania's Ministry of Environment said.

"As Lithuania was preparing for the exploration of shale resources and intends to produce hydrocarbons from them, it first had to make sure that the shale itself was not toxic. This is why we tasked geologists with doing research," Deputy Minister for Environment Daiva Matoniene said.

A certified Canadian laboratory was chosen to analyse the chemical composition of the samples. Based on the findings of analysis and on the effective environmental requirements for managing areas contaminated with chemicals, LGT found that the only limit values exceeded in shale were those of molybdenum (1.66 times), which apply to areas used for the production, storage, processing and loading of petroleum as well as to other industrial areas with low sensitivity to pollution. The limit values for copper (up to 4.5 times), arsenic (up to 1.8 times), uranium and selenium (up to 1.6) and vanadium (1.17 times) were exceeded in the individual samples of shale rock. Such increased levels of these elements exist in any fossil fuel: coal, lignite and petroleum.

According to Daiva Matoniene, the Ministry of Environment aims to collect a maximum amount of reliable and detailed information about Lithuanian shale and to make it available to the public to rule out amateur interpretations and speculations. Quite a few meetings on the issue have already been held with researchers and community stakeholders and more will be arranged in the future.