Fuel and Energy Complex

The fuel and energy complex (FEC) is an intersectoral system that includes the extraction, processing of various types of fuel and energy production, their transportation, distribution and consumption.

The fuel and energy complex includes the following enterprises:

main (fuel and energy industries); auxiliary (specialized engineering and transport); servicing (specialized construction and installation, repair and other enterprises) production,  as well as the control system.

The fuel and energy complex has a district-forming feature, which is expressed in the fact that industry is forming near energy sources, production and non-production infrastructure is developing .

The following features are characteristic of the Belarusian fuel and energy complex:

The presence of inefficient equipment in operation, which entails an increased consumption of fuel and energy resources (more than 50% of the equipment is morally obsolete and has exhausted its resource); Changes in the structure of consumption of energy resources due to a decrease in the share of industry and an increase in the share of the household sector and agriculture; Dependence on the supply of fuel and energy resources (FER) from one country (82% of fuel and energy resources comes from Russia), which makes the level of domestic prices dependent on their fluctuations in the domestic Russian market; Insufficiently effective policy in the field of energy saving (the energy intensity of GDP is 2-4 times higher than the same parameter for the EU countries). True, over the past decade, the energy intensity of GDP has tended to decline; A high level of monopolization in the fuel and energy sector, which leads to the need for strict state regulation.

The most acute problem of the development of fuel and energy is
The low availability of fuel and energy resources in Belarus is the level of the complex. With the development of the national economy, the share of local fuels decreased, and the import of fuel and energy resources from outside expanded. So, if in 1950 the share of local fuels was 50%, now it has decreased to 10%. In this regard, the task has been set to bring it to 20%.

Given the predominance of wasteful energy consumption schemes (14 kg of fuel equivalent is consumed per $ 1 of products in Belarus, while in the EU countries – 0.81 kg), oil should be imported annually to the republic – up to 20 million tons, natural gas – 16 billion m3, coal – about 1 million tons.

Potentially, in addition to Russia, suppliers of fuel and energy resources can be the countries of the Middle East and Norway. But in the foreseeable future, apparently, Russia will remain the main supplier of oil and gas, especially since three main gas pipelines and one oil pipeline pass through the republic.

Currently, the trend of increasing the share of the electric power industry is clearly manifested in Belarus. This is primarily due to the growth of tariffs for electricity and heat as a result of a sharp increase in fuel prices (gas, fuel oil) and a decrease in oil refining volumes. The electric power industry and the oil refining industry account for 94.6% of the total production (Table 8.1).

Table 8.1 Resource requirements by component

Structure of gross output of the fuel and energy complex of Belarus, %, [2, p.73]

The main types of fuel used in the republic are gas and fuel oil. They will prevail in the forecast period. Moreover, the main resource will be natural gas, thanks to an extensive system of main gas pipelines. Fuel oil produced in the republic from local oil or supplied from abroad will be considered as a backup fuel for the electric power industry.

The fuel industry is a combination of industries for the extraction and processing of various types of fuel. Its development in Belarus is based on local fuels and imported resources (Table 8.2).

Table 8.2 Resource requirements by component

Fuel balance of the Republic of Belarus, %, [2, p.73]

Mineral fuels are the main source of energy in the Soviet Union.
belt management and the main industrial raw materials. Almost 35 million tons of equivalent fuel (t u.t.) per year are used in Belarus.

The Belarusian oil and gas region is located in an exceptionally advantageous economic and geographical position. High population density, a dense network of railways and highways, the proximity of powerful industrial centers of Western Europe and the transition of Belarus to new conditions for the organization of the national economy ensure high efficiency in the development of the oil industry. The period of industrial development of proven oil reserves in Belarus is much shorter than in other CIS countries. Industrial development, for example, of the Rechitsa oil field began 7 months after its discovery, and three years later the oil companies received the first million tons of Belarusian oil. And already in 1972 its production in Belarus amounted to about 6 million tons, in 1975 – 8 million tons (surpassing production in countries such as India, Germany, Turkey, etc.). Since 1997, an average of 1.8 million tons has been mined in the republic.
In the future, taking into account the explored industrial reserves of oil, technical and economic indicators in its production, there will be a decrease in volumes to 1.1 million tons per year. Such volumes of oil production allow to meet the needs of the Belarusian economy by no more than 10.0%.

In the 70s and 80s, the production of associated petroleum gas was increasing at a high rate. In 1976–1990, 11.6 billion m3 was produced from its own associated gas resources, or an average of about 800 million m3 per year. Gas supply to consumers is also carried out from the system of main gas pipelines of Belarus with a length of more than 5.5 thousand km. The republic’s needs for compressed gas are 60% satisfied by supplies from Russia and 40% are produced at its own plants in Mozyr, Novopolotsk, Rechnitsa. Sustainable gas supply to consumers is facilitated by the Osipovichi underground gas storage facility, and since 1999 – the first stage of the Pribugsky. The first line of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline began to work. The current level of study of the territory of Belarus allows us to talk about the unlikelihood of the discovery of large deposits of hydrocarbon raw materials. Its reserves will last for about 45 years with an annual production level of about 1.5 million tons.

In Pripyat Polesie, oil shales were found, which are complex fuel and technical raw materials. With its energy-technological use, it is possible to obtain a highly efficient hydrocarbon fuel such as petroleum fuel oil (heat of combustion on average about 10,000 kcal / kg), low-calorific gas and for resin waters, which are intermediate raw materials for the production of valuable products of organic synthesis, and shale soot, which can be used in the production of various building materials. From this point of view, Belarus has every opportunity to create an energy-technological complex in the south (on the basis of the Turovskoye field).

The development of oil shale deposits is possible by the underground method with an annual production of the mine of 4.5 million tons, with a service life of about 50 years. Despite the fact that Belarusian oil shale is inferior in quality to Estonian oil shale and those used in the CIS and other countries, interest in them is increasing. This is due to the fact that the reserves of Belarusian oil are sharply decreasing, so we have to take into account the possibility of using shale as energy fuel and chemical raw materials.

Industrial deposits of brown coal are located in the south of Belarus, in Polesie. The Zhitkovichi field was explored in detail and prepared for industrial development: severnoye (23.5 million tons) and Naidinsky open-pit mine (23.1 million tons). On their basis, it is possible to build a lignite quarry with an annual capacity of 2 million tons The quality of coal is the same as in the Dnieper coal basin (Ukraine): humidity is 56-60%, the yield of volatile substances is 39-60%, the heat of combustion is on average 1640 kcal / kg. Its reserves in categories A + B + C, (about 72 million tons) lie at a depth of up to 45 m, the capacity of the coal seam reaches 16 m. In Belarus, coal deposits of Neogene age, Carboniferous and Jurassic periods are known. The latter are of higher quality and in their characteristics are very close to the coal of the Donetsk basin. They lie deep, the capacity of the reservoir is small, which does not allow them to be evaluated as industrial. However, the degree of their study is still clearly insufficient to talk about their complete futility.

The problem of strengthening the fuel and energy base of Belarus at all stages of its industrial development was solved to a large extent through the use of local fuels, especially peat. Back in the 60s, the share of peat in the structure of the fuel and energy balance of the republic was about 66%. However, in the subsequent increase in production volumes, the growth of energy intensity of products necessitated the supply of more economical and efficient fuels to Belarus. The share of peat began to decline, and from the mid-80s until 1997, peat ceased to be used as fuel at all (Table 8.3).

Today, when the Republic of Belarus is forced to focus on its own resources in the development of the economy, it is necessary to revive the once mothballed low-power power plants, as well as to switch again to the use of peat as a fuel and energy resource.

Table 8.3 Resource requirements by component

Dynamics of production of the main types of fuel and energy resources in Belarus, [5, p.169]

The energy outlook is increasingly defined as transitional from traditional, non-renewable energy sources to new, renewable ones. Therefore, it is necessary to develop fundamentally new methods for the production of electrical and thermal energy. In such conditions, the main strategic direction for improving the fuel and energy balance of Belarus should be an energy-saving policy, since the introduction of scientific, technical, organizational and economic measures for energy saving in the republic is about twice as economical as the import of primary energy carriers from other countries. In the meantime, the energy saving potential of Belarus, according to experts, is a third of the energy consumed. In addition, improving the structure of the fuel and energy balance requires a qualitative restructuring of the structure of production and production of energy resources.

Main parameters of the fuel industry in 2002

The oil refining industry in Belarus is represented by the Novopolotsk Production Association “Naftan” and the joint-stock company “Mozyr Oil Refinery”. They specialize in the production of motor and boiler fuels, oils, products for the chemical and petrochemical industries. They have facilities that allow annual distillation of more than 40 million tons of oil.

At the beginning of 1990, Belarus exported about 1/2 of gasoline, diesel fuel and about 1/3 of fuel oil. However, recently the reduction in oil supplies from outside Belarus, as well as the lack of local raw materials, not only makes it impossible to increase the capacity for the production of these types of products, but also to maintain them at the existing level. Such circumstances force to deepen oil refining, thereby changing the structure of the produced petroleum products. After 1996, the oil refining industry launched a vacuum fuel oil distillation unit (Novopolotsk Refinery), catalytic reforming using French technology (Mozyr Refinery), which made it possible to increase the depth of oil refining from 50% to 70-75%. It should be noted that in Western Europe at 78% of oil refineries the depth of oil refining reaches 70%, and in the USA this figure is 90% [6, p.156].

Parameters of industry development in 2003

Electricity. Growth of fuel and energy consumption-
85% of the resources that have been observed recently in Belarus are dictated by the needs of the electric power industry. It consumes 60% of all fuel and energy resources of the republic. Previously, the electric power industry of Belarus occupied almost the last place in the gross structure of industry – it did not exceed 2.7%. Since 1995, the situation has changed dramatically: it steadily occupies the fifth place (inferior to mechanical engineering and metalworking, food, light, chemistry and petrochemistry); it accounts for 8.4% of the total gross industrial output. At the same time, the average annual growth rate of electricity production has been constantly decreasing. In 1961-1965 they amounted to 19.5%, in 1981-1985 – 0.9%, in 1991-1995 and in 1996-2000. in general became negative: respectively -8.2% and -0.3% (Table 8.4).

The basis of the electric power industry in Belarus is thermal power plants (TPPs), interconnected by power lines (Fig. 8.1).

Table 8.4 Resource requirements by component

Average annual indices of growth (decrease) of the total volume of production by industries of Belarus

for 1961 – 2000, %, [5, p.33]

Rice. 8.1. Scheme of the unified energy system of Belarus

In the 60s, the Belarusian energy system was connected to the energy systems of neighboring states. Currently, electricity is imported from Lithuania and the Russian Federation. The main consumer of electricity is industry (more than 70%) (Tables 8.5, 8.6).

Table 8.5 Resource requirements by component

Share of branches of the national economy of Belarus

in fuel consumption, %, [2, p.178]

Table 8.6 Resource requirements by component

Structure of electricity consumption in the sectors of the people

economy of Belarus, %, [2, p.178]

Thermal energy is produced by more than 20 CHP plants and district boiler houses. The largest CHP: Lukomlskaya GRES (capacity 2.4 million kW) – provides about 40% of all electricity in Belarus. Previously, it worked on the furnace fuel oil of ATPO Naftan, the Novopolotsk oil refinery, now the main type of fuel is natural gas.

Large power plants include Berezovskaya GRES (920 thousand kW), Svetlogorsk CHPP (formerly Vasilevichskaya GRES, 322 thousand kW), Zhodino CHPP (formerly Smolevichskaya GRES), Minsk CHPP-4 (700 thousand kW), Novopolotsk CHPP
(505 thousand kW), Minsk CHPP-3 (435 thousand kW), Mogilev CHPP-2 (345 thousand kW), as well as CHPP in Bobruisk, Gomel, Grodno, Mozyr and other cities. After 1996, a new 330 MW unit was put into operation at Minsk CHPP-5, and at Pinsk and Mogilev
CHPP-1 – blocks of 6 MW.

In different periods, more than 20 hydroelectric power plants of small capacity were built on the territory of Belarus. Thus, Belarus has not yet completely solved the problem of providing electricity to 3.8 million private consumers and 234 thousand enterprises. To reduce tensions, it is necessary to build new capacities of power plants, to expand the existing ones. Today, the construction of Minsk CHPP-5 and Zelvenskaya GRES continues, and many GRES are being reconstructed. Hydropower will be further developed: previously mothballed small hydropower plants will be restored, and the construction of new ones is envisaged. The main fuel of power plants is supposed to be natural gas. projects are also being developed to use local resources: oil shale, brown coal. The source of electricity should be the use of non-traditional fuels and energy: wind, biogas, obtained as a result of waste processing at large livestock complexes. Only due to non-traditional types of energy can its growth be ensured by 4-6%. It is also possible to solve the energy problem by developing nuclear energy in Belarus. 5-7 times more energy can be obtained with an effective combination of resource-saving technologies with energy saving measures.

The existing fuel and energy base, as well as the level of needs of the national economy in energy resources show that Belarus can meet the needs of only 8-10% at the expense of its own resources. The main directions of development of the fuel and energy complex of Belarus are:

improving the organization of the management of the complex (it is proposed, in particular, to restructure the industry in order to create a Belarusian energy market, in which the state reserves a monopoly on infrastructure (PTL), and production and sales should become competitive areas); improving the structure of fuel, energy and fuel and energy balances; generation of electricity at nuclear power plants; Reduction of energy losses during its transmission and distribution
division; implementation of the policy of resource and energy saving in all spheres of economic activity; consideration of environmental requirements in the construction and reconstruction of power plants or their facilities (this is especially true for CHP); improving the structure and territorial organization of the unified energy system of Belarus; development of intersystem connections of the Belarusian energy system with the combined energy systems of the Center and the North of the CIS.

The main parameters of the development of the electric power industry:

The general conclusion on the fuel and energy complex of Belarus is that the complex is not effective enough due to its equipment with outdated equipment. The shortage of primary energy sources dictates the need to introduce energy-saving technologies and increase the use of local types of resources.