Belarus interested in construction of second line of Yamal-Europe gas main :: Charter'97 :: News

Belarus is interested in construction of the second line of the gas main Yamal-Europe, deputy energy minister Eduard Tovpenets told a news conference today.

“Russia has not turned down our proposal as the idea was right from the outset”, the deputy minister stated. The construction of the gas main through Belarus is much cheaper than in the seabed of the Baltic Sea.

At the same time Eduard Tovpenets noted “while there are no obstacles from the Belarusian side, the issue has not been settled yet with Poland where almost all land is in private property”.

BelTA informed earlier that Beltransgaz hopes that in case the Russian gas company approves the construction, the second line’ capacity will be similar to the first one and will go in parallel to it. The designed capacity of the first line is about 33 billion cubic meters of gas a year.

The Belarusian part of the gas main is 575 kilometers long. One compressor plant Nesvizh has been sent in service in this country. For the first line to reach the designed capacity, four more compressor plants should be put into operation in Belarus. They are Krupki, Slonim, Minsk, Orsha. Krupki compressor plant will be commissioned in the end of September and Slonim – in the end of November what meets the schedule, Gazprom intends to allocate USD 50 million in the construction of each plant.

More than 2 thousand kilometers-long gas main Yamal-Europe was sent into operation in November 1999. The main crosses Belarus, Russia and Poland. Last year some 23 billion cubic meters of the Russian natural gas were transported across the Belarusian part of the main.