Two peat production plants will be built in the Vitebsk region by 2011

August 27, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. Two modern plants for the production of peat products will be built in the Vitebsk region by 2011. This was announced by the Minister of Energy of Belarus Alexander Ozerets today at a meeting of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, where the progress of the state program "Peat" for 2008-2010 and for the period up to 2020 was considered. A peat briquette production enterprise will be built in the Chashniki district, and a pellet factory will be launched in the Dokshitsy district. It is possible that foreign investors will be involved in the creation of the enterprise in the Dokshitsy district. In addition, the reconstruction of 20 peat extraction enterprises will continue. As Alexander Ozerets emphasized, the focus will be on high-tech equipment that allows for significant cost reduction and expansion of the product range. For example, the installation of Finnish complexes for the extraction of lump peat at the enterprises "Vitebskoblgaz" and "Vitebskenergo" made it possible to reduce the cost of one ton of lump peat from Br105 thousand to Br36 thousand. In 2009, it is planned to extract 2.7 million tons of peat in the republic and produce 1.24 million tons of fuel briquettes. By 2020, the state program aims to increase peat extraction to 7.5 million tons, of which 4.5 million tons will be used in the energy sector and 3 million tons in agriculture. -0-