OREANDA-NEWS. Belarus will soon finish pumping gas into its underground gas storage facilities, Energy Minister of Belarus Alexander Ozerets said on October 16 at a session of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers, which tabled the issues relating to the preparation for the 1007/2008 heating season, reported the Official website www.government.by.

According to the minister, as of October 10 more than 640 million cubic meters of gas were pumped into the facilities. “By October 20 the target will be hit – 660 million cubic meters of gas will be pumped,” he said.

Belarus also built up necessary reserves of residual fuel oil.

As of early October stocks of liquefied gas at the Belarusian gas-filling stations totaled 9,2 thousand tonnes (a 15-day reserve). In Q4 2007 and in Q1 2008 some 73,6 thousand tonnes of liquefied gas will be sold domestically to completely satisfy Belarus’ needs for this type of fuel.

The companies of Beltopgaz concern hit the peat extraction target by 101,1% and extracted 2,8 million tonnes of peat (22,5% more than on October 1, 2006). They produced 823,9 thousand tonnes of peat briquettes (92,9% as against the same period of 2006).

Apart from building up fuel reserves the Government also took organizational-technical actions aimed at preparing energy generating facilities for the autumn-winter period, Alexander Ozerets underlined.