Key events
Two Deputy Ministers of Energy appointed
Vladislav Dolgiy will oversee energy saving, import substitution, the use of local fuels, and several other areas. Prior to his appointment, he headed the team of the «Minsk Cable Networks» branch of the «Minskenergo» enterprise.
Konstantin Anoshenko will be responsible for the strategic development of the energy sector and foreign economic cooperation. Before his appointment, he served as Head of the Department for Strategic Development and Foreign Investment Cooperation at the Ministry of Energy.
Olga Filippovna Prudnikova, who had served as Deputy Minister of Energy, has stepped down from her position.
Belarus and Hungary have signed a roadmap for cooperation in nuclear energy for 2025–2027.
The roadmap includes activities related to experience sharing on the development of nuclear energy infrastructure, nuclear and radiation safety, management of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, as well as scientific and technical support for the operation of nuclear power plants.
Since the beginning of 2025, the nuclear power plant has generated 6.3 billion kWh of electricity. At the start of the year, Unit 1 was undergoing scheduled maintenance until January 27, while Unit 2 was idle until January 24 due to an emergency shutdown. Excluding these downtime periods, the plant operated at nearly full capacity for the rest of the time, with an average capacity factor (CF) of 80% since the beginning of the year.
At the 110 kV «Pruzhany» substation, arc-suppression reactors were replaced. The substation personnel replaced the 300 kVA reactors with 630 kVA units, followed by their configuration and commissioning.
The Orsha Electric Networks branch of RUE «Vitebskenergo» has launched a large-scale reconstruction of the 330/110/10 kV «Orsha-330» substation. The main goal of the project is to replace equipment that has exhausted its service life and to introduce modern technologies.
Reconstruction of the boiler house in Baranovichi, Brest region has been completed. During the reconstruction, the old gas-fired boiler unit DKVr-10/13 (manufactured in 1975) was replaced with a domestically produced energy-efficient KV-10.0 boiler, featuring an efficiency of up to 94% and a specific fuel consumption of 151.9 kg of coal equivalent per Gcal.
The reconstruction of the 110 kV «Navagrudak» substation is underway. The project involves the use of SF6 equipment, installation of digital relay protection and automation systems, as well as the creation of high-tech automated systems for process control and electricity metering.
On May 17, in the Sovetsky district of Gomel, a temporary power outage occurred due to a cable line disconnection at 10:30 a.m., affecting Kosareva Street, Davydovskaya Street, Rechitsky Avenue, and the Solnechny neighborhood. By 12:00 p.m., power supply to all consumers was fully restored.
Statistics and data
In January–March 2025, peat industry organizations produced over 280 thousand tons of peat fuel briquettes and dried peat, as well as more than 38 thousand tons of nutritive, covering soils, and raised peat. To fully meet domestic demand and supply external markets this season, it is planned to extract more than 1.9 million tons of peat.
The high peat extraction rate in spring can be explained by a mild, snowless winter and a dry spring, which allowed work on peatlands to start earlier. However, the extraction plan of 1.9 million tons is lower than last year’s production (2 million tons).
In January–March 2025, consumers in the republic were supplied with 5.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 8.6 thousand tons of liquefied gas. Approximately 138 km of gas pipelines of various categories were put into operation.
The number of registered electric vehicles has already reached nearly 30,000 units. The network of charging stations exceeds 1,500 units. In the first quarter of 2025, electricity consumption by charging stations increased to 16.6 million kWh, which is 2.2 times higher compared to the same period last year. In April, 1,488 new electric vehicles were registered and 16 new stations were commissioned.
In the first quarter of 2025, electricity consumption by households for heating and hot water supply amounted to 480 million kWh, representing a 29% increase compared to the same period last year. This is nearly half of the planned electricity consumption volume for 2025.
Retail prices for automotive fuel will change by 2 kopecks. Starting from May 3, 2025, the maximum retail price limits for motor fuel at gas stations in the Republic of Belarus will be as follows: AI-92 at 2.50 BYN ($0.83), AI-95 at 2.60 BYN ($0.86), AI-98 at 2.82 BYN ($0.94), and diesel fuel at 2.60 BYN ($0.86).
Six new wells were added to the «Belorusneft» fund in April.
In 2024, 1,938 thousand tons of oil were produced.
Pellet production capacity is 900 thousand tons per year. In 2024, consumption amounted to 44.3 thousand tons. In the first quarter of 2025, consumption was 23.3 thousand tons. For 2025, consumption is planned to exceed 70 thousand tons. Over the next five years, it is planned to convert at least 125 boiler houses exclusively to pellets.
The target indicator for reducing GDP energy intensity in the first quarter was -5.6%, exceeding the target of -2.8%. The total fuel and energy resources (FER) savings across the republic due to energy-saving measures amounted to 153.2 thousand tons of conventional fuel, against an annual target of 427 thousand tons of conventional fuel. The share of local FER (excluding nuclear energy) in gross FER consumption was 15.0% (target indicator at least 16.1%), and the target share of renewable energy sources (RES) was 7.9% (planned range 7–8%).
Statements
“‘Our children may not have gas. Even during our time, there may be no cheap gas,’ Lukashenko said. He made this statement during a visit to a wood pellet production facility. The topic of using local energy sources was also raised at a meeting on waste management and the use of secondary material resources. ‘But renewable and secondary resources are literally our “gold” underfoot, which we pay very little attention to.’ At the same time, the development of key local energy sources — wind and solar — is effectively blocked in the country. Restrictions (quotas) on installations for producing electricity from wind and solar were not discussed at these events.”
Topic of the Issue: Oil refining in 2024
This month, data appeared on the export of petroleum products by rail from Belarus. Total exports amounted to 5.7 million tons of petroleum products (down 23%). Diesel exports decreased to 1 million tons (down 58%), while gasoline exports dropped to 2.3 million tons (down 13%).
To assess the performance of the oil refining sector, besides exports, it is also necessary to consider the volume of petroleum product consumption within Belarus.
Based on the available data, domestic transportation of petroleum products amounted to 3,017 thousand tons (or 15.8% lower than in 2023). However, unlike exports, domestic transportation can also be carried out by road transport as well as through the Novolotsk-Fanipol pipeline, which has a capacity of about 1 million tons per year.
According to our estimates, petroleum product consumption in 2024 was around 7.5 million tons, which is slightly lower than in 2019–2020. During those periods, total consumption of all petroleum products was about 7.9–8.1 million tons. The reduction in consumption is linked to restrictions on aviation, freight transit, as well as reduced exports of products whose production involved petroleum products for technological purposes.
Assuming the consumption structure of petroleum products remains unchanged, from the total volume about 1.1 million tons are gasoline and around 3 million tons are diesel. The remainder consists of fuel oil and other petroleum products.
Thus, if we consider that our estimates and export data are accurate, in 2024 approximately 3.4 million tons of gasoline and about 4 million tons of diesel were produced. It is worth noting that such a production structure is uncharacteristic for Belarusian refineries. For example, in 2020, the ratio of diesel to gasoline production was 1.8 (i.e., 1.8 tons of diesel were produced per ton of gasoline). According to our calculations, this ratio dropped to 1.17 in 2024. This is despite the refinery modernization completed after 2020, which was expected to increase diesel output — thus, the ratio should have increased.
In 2020, the yield of gasoline was 0.2, and diesel fuel was 0.36. Our estimates suggest that after modernization these yields should have increased to 0.25 for gasoline and 0.44 for diesel. With such yield values and the calculated volume of petroleum products production, it would require about 13 million tons of crude oil to produce the gasoline, and only about 9 million tons for the diesel.
One possible reason for this discrepancy could be inaccurate data on diesel exports, with the actual volume being somewhat higher—an additional approximately 1.7 million tons of diesel might have been exported. In that case, about 13 million tons of crude oil would have been processed. Considering domestic production at around 1.9 million tons, imports would amount to 11.1 million tons, which generally aligns with our estimates based on export data from January to August of the previous year.
Another possible reason could be real difficulties with diesel fuel exports. In this scenario, refineries might switch to a less optimal operating mode, resulting in reduced diesel output but some increase in gasoline and heavier petroleum products yields. Under this situation, crude oil consumption would be about 12 million tons, with imports around 10,1 million tons.
Материал доступен на русском языке: Беларусы пересаживаются на электрокары, а государство стопорит зеленую энергию. Энергетический дайджест за май 2025
