Republic
11.09.2007
The utilisation of local fuels in Belarus is dissatisfactory, said Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky at today’s session of the Council of Ministers Presidium.
With the utilisation of local fuels expected to increase by 450,000 tonnes of oil equivalent in 2007, the utilisation of local fuels shrank by 37,000 tonnes of oil equivalent in the first half of the year, the Premier stressed.
With more locally available fuels utilised, Belarus will be able to reduce energy imports. The Premier asked Director of the Energy Effectiveness Department of the State Standardisation Committee Lev Dubovik about reasons behind the situation.
In turn, Lev Dubovik said, the Gomel oblast, Minsk and the region are progressing well in using more local fuels, while the rest of the country decreased the consumption of local fuels instead of increasing it in H1 2007. He admitted, the regions inadequately work to achieve the goal.
Lev Dubovik said, in H1 2007 Belarus saved around 1.3 million tonnes of oil equivalent of fuel, with fuel oil consumption down by 700,000 tonnes of oil equivalent, consumption of natural gas down by roughly the same amount. The consumption of these energy resources shrank by 10% while the utilisation of local fuels shrank as well.
According to Lev Dubovik, in some ministries and state agencies (those of the Education Ministry, Healthcare Ministry, others) local fuels account for 90-94% of the fuel consumption, as “local fuels are the main kind of fuel for them. Meanwhile, other state agencies should work harder to substitute imported energy resources with locally available fuels,” he stressed.
Evaluating energy-saving figures registered in Q1 2007, Lev Dubovik remarked, all the ministries except for Belarusian state food concern Belgospischeprom managed to reach the designated goals. Among other things the energy-saving performance of the concern was affected by lower commodity output growth rate due to problems with sugar sales.
Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky believes the reason is unconvincing. “Get going with energy saving, then you will have competitive ability reserves and profitability surplus,” stressed the Premier.