Law on Subsoil (No. I-1034).

The Law determines the basic rights and obligations of state institutions and of legal and natural persons with respect to the exploration, exploitation and protection of the underground of the land territory, of the Continental Shelf and of the economic zone of Lithuania in the Baltic Sea. This Law establishes the management, exploration, legal bases for use, protection and management of subsoil data. Subsoil resources - a part of natural resources that includes the structure of the subsoil and elements of the composition shall be intended solid bodies, liquids, gases or geothermal energy, which man may use and the quantity or quality of which may vary as a result. Use of underground resources and cavities shall be intended activities aimed at extracting minerals, underground water, geothermal energy, to install and use underground cavities and other features of subsoil.
The text consists of 33 articles divided into 9 Chapters, i.e. General provisions (I); State Regulation of the utilisation, protection, and control of the underground (II); Investigations of the underground (III); Exploitation of underground resources or caves (IV); The protection of the underground (V); Data about the underground (VI); Responsibility for the violation of the underground law and disputes (VII); International relations (VIII); Final provisions (IX).
The underground is the exclusive property of the State; rights of exploitation may be granted to Lithuanian or foreign legal and natural persons (art. 2). Licences to exploit water resources for drinking water and "technical water" shall be granted by the Governor of the County, but licences for centralized drinking-water supply for cities may only be granted by the city government (art. 14, comma 2).