Belarusian enterprises present their developments at St. Petersburg Gas Forum

Belarusian enterprises presented new developments for the gas industry of the Union State.

The St. Petersburg Gas Forum is one of the largest and most authoritative business events in the gas industry.

Today, when the whole world is concerned about the pollution of the planet and the destruction of the ozone layer from exhaust gases, it is here that very important issues are raised. One of them is the transition to cleaner types of fuel, for example, liquefied natural gas.

Belarus has been participating in the St. Petersburg Forum for the second year in a row. And this time there are a lot of interesting developments. For example, the world's first grain harvester "Polesie" on liquefied natural gas. This is a Belarusian-Russian project, a striking example of import substitution.

Our Belarus tractor is gradually switching to natural gas. It is also presented at the exhibition. The famous BELAZ also chooses LNG. A 90-ton quarry dump truck is presented at the forum. In 2023, it successfully passed; today, dozens of similar machines are already working in the coal quarries of Kuzbass. By the way, next to it is a mobile filling station of Russian production. Such an industrial symbiosis of the two countries.

"The main advantage, of course, is the environment. We understand that natural gas is less toxic, unlike diesel fuel, which is traditionally used in quarry dump trucks. The volumes of fuel consumption for a quarry dump truck are huge. For example, one of the machines consumes 350 tons of diesel fuel per year. The use of gas piston engines allows replacing such a volume of diesel fuel with similar volumes of natural gas, and also reducing a significant burden on the infrastructure in terms of emissions of harmful substances, - said Sergey Lesin, General Director of BelAZ OJSC - the management company of the Belaz-holding holding. - Well, and the second, of course, is the economy, because liquefied natural gas is up to 30% cheaper than diesel fuel. Therefore, of course, enterprises also derive economic benefits from operating such equipment." Another interesting Belarusian development is the MAZ X hybrid. It is a symbiosis of a new generation tractor and a tourist bus from the Minsk Automobile Plant. And, of course, one of the most popular in Belarus, and I think already in Russia, is a passenger car BelGee.

By the way, today on the sidelines of the forum, a strategic session will be held, where experts will discuss the use of Belarusian equipment in the gas and mining industries of Russia. In addition, on October 10, a memorandum of cooperation will be signed between the government of Belarus and Gazprom.