MINSK, 1 July (BelTA) – Belarusian gas supply enterprises are interested in participating in gas infrastructure development projects in Russia. Director General of the state enterprise Beltopgaz, member of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Aleksei Kushnarenko made the statement on the sidelines of the 8th Forum of Regions of Belarus and Russia on 1 July, the Belarusian Energy Ministry press service told BelTA.
On 1 June the Russian parliament amended the law on natural gas supply. The document is expected to encourage more efforts to connect residential buildings to the natural gas grid. Belarusian enterprises could participate in these projects by offering their design and construction services and by supplying equipment.
According to Aleksei Kushnarenko, a lot has been done in Belarus in the last few years to offer natural gas to Belarusian households. At present all the 115 cities have access to natural gas in addition to 118 district capitals, about 3,400 populated localities in rural areas, 3 million apartments and single-family houses. Partnership with Russian colleagues could be interesting, the official noted.
Peat industry is another promising avenue of cooperation. Belarus and Russia have considerable peat reserves. Peat extraction could help bolster the energy security of Belarus and Russia, Aleksei Kushnarenko said.
Belarus has the science and modern technologies for making a broad range of peat products. Belarusian peat products are already sold to 19 Russian regions. R&D cooperation in this field develops with Russia's Tyumen Oblast, Sverdlovsk Oblast, and Leningrad Oblast. A Belarusian-Russian project to create a modular automated complex for making peat briquettes was implemented in 2015.
Aleksei Kushnarenko said it would be a good idea to make organic and organic-mineral fertilizers out of peat. Thanks to modernization efforts Belarusian enterprises have a strong manufacturing potential in the sphere of peat products. The production of the entire lineup of machines and equipment for extracting and processing peat has been mastered. “If the Russian side is interested, we are ready to offer possible cooperation options,” the Beltopgaz director general added.
