MINSK, 29 October (BelTA) – Belarus has sufficient peat reserves for the next 100 years. Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister Olga Prudnikova mentioned it during a seminar-conference held on 29 October to sum up this year's peat extraction results, BelTA has learned.
According to the Energy Ministry press service, Belarus' peat reserves are estimated at 2.4 billion tonnes, with 302 million tonnes available for commercial development.
As much as 1.6 million tonnes of peat was mined in Belarus in 2021, including 1.4 million tonnes of milled peat to make peat fuel and 234,000 tonnes of non-fuel peat. The export of fuel and non-fuel peat is on the rise, Olga Prudnikova stated.
The official noted that due to the energy crisis in Europe the demand for local fuels, including peat, will rise. The situation in Western countries indicates that the decisions they made regarding the energy policy – timelines, possibilities, and implementation costs – were hard to implement. Opinions doubting the ability of renewable sources of energy to resolve the energy problem can be heard on various platforms now, including European ones.
More stable sources and energy resources are needed to ensure the steady operation of the energy system. Those are natural gas and locally available fuels, including wood and peat, Olga Prudnikova said. “I think these matters will be rethought once again because a balance of interests is needed – ecological, economic, and social ones –. The more diversified the fuel basket of any consumer is, the better protected from any cataclysms the consumer is,” she added.
Foreign demand for Belarusian peat is on the rise in the current situation. For instance, the Lyakhovichi peat briquette plant increased export to Ukraine by six times in 2021. Belarusian peat products are sold in Latvia, Slovakia, Poland, and other countries.
The export of peat soils for agribusiness purposes has increased considerably. “Agriculture faces pandemic-related problems among other industries, however, it is impossible to secure a good harvest without proper farming and tilling operations. This is why today our policy, the price range, and the novelties the marketing divisions come up with such as new packaging, advertising allow us to increase these volumes and export them,” Olga Prudnikova explained.
