The development of shale gas in Europe could help the continent obtain better deals from its current key supplier, the Russian giant Gazprom, EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said on Friday. “I am sure (that) to have some shale gas option is a good instrument for our long-term negotiations (with) Gazprom and Russia”, Oettinger told journalists in Vilnius, Lithuania. Oettinger insisted that Gazprom, currently Lithuania’s sole natural gas supplier, was charging the Baltic nation, a Soviet republic until 1990, up to 40% more than the market price in Germany. “It is not acceptable,” AFP quoted Oettinger as saying. Oettinger said, Europe needs a common price from Lisbon to Vilnius. Lithuanian lawmakers are considering new laws which would strengthen environmental regulations after protests erupted over hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, a controversial technology used to extract gas from shale.