Turkmenistan has developed a project to extinguish the Darvaza gas crater. It caught fire more than 50 years ago in the Karakum Desert due to the collapse of an exploration mine. The project is currently at the approval stage, TASS reports.

“We have drawn up a project, the main essence of which is to limit the flow of gas to this emergency well. Now it is at the stage of practical implementation. Work has not yet begun, but before they begin, it is necessary to carry out a theoretical study, draw up a project. This project has already been drawn up, it is at the stage of approval,” Irina Luryeva, Head of the Laboratory of the Scientific Research Institute (NII) of Natural Gas of the Turkmengas State Concern, said.

Luryeva stressed that scientists from the Research Institute had studied various options for solving the problem of a burning crater and came to the conclusion that it was the most correct to drill a well near the field, which would take gas to all reservoirs.

“The fact is that unregulated flows can be stopped in this way, that is, more can be taken away than nature gives,” the research institute expert noted.

A burning gas crater appeared 266 km from Ashgabat, in the Karakum desert, in 1971, when geologists working here discovered an underground cavity with an accumulation of natural gas. During the development of the field, a collapse occurred, the drilling rig went underground, and gas began to flow from the resulting underground cave.

To avoid poisoning people and livestock with gas, geologists decided to set it on fire, believing that the fire would die down over time. But natural gases escaping from the ground continue to burn to this day and are even visible from space. The intense heat and the danger of collapse of the rims of the crater make it difficult to penetrate the funnel and study it from the inside.