Scientists from the Natural Gas Research Institute of the State Concern «Turkmengas» have developed a way to control the release of gas in the Darvaza crater, which has been burning for almost 60 years.  This was announced by the director of this institute, Bayrammyrat Pirniyazov, at the International Scientific Conference «Environmental aspects in the production of hydrocarbon resources», held on Thursday in Ashgabat.

 Acting at the forum «Environmental aspects of hydrocarbon production», Bayrammyrat Pirniyazov spoke about the history of the emergence of the Darvaza crater, located 270 kilometers from Ashgabat.

 As noted, in 1963, an exploratory well was drilled on the Chaldzhulba structure of the Central Karakum group of fields.  However, for the first time, a cavity filled with gas was discovered at a shallow depth, into which the upper layers of the soil collapsed.  As a result, a sinkhole with a diameter of 60 m and a depth of about 20 m was formed.

 Then the crater was set on fire in order to prevent gas poisoning of people and animals.  As expected, either the gas will burn out in a few days, or the productive formation will be flooded, as in other structures, at a distance of 5-7 km, where there are two more craters – filled with Shikh water and Derweze clay.  However, this did not happen.

 Since then, various measures have been taken to study the crater.  Scientists tried to find a collapsed exploration well, for this purpose, experts descended to the bottom of the crater.  It was assumed that if the part of the wellbore fixed with cement was preserved, then it would be possible to take measures to mount fittings with coiled tubing.  As a result, the process of gas release would become controllable.  However, it was not possible to find the remains of the exploratory wellbore, since the gas comes out from different places within a radius of 20 meters.

 In addition, according to the results of the operation of production wells located in this zone, gas flows between the layers along the section were confirmed.  A group of 16 gas fields has been discovered in the northern part of the Central Karakum, eight of them are currently being developed, and production is carried out from 39 wells.

 As scientists have revealed, a feature of this group of deposits is the presence of a large number of thin thin layers interbedded with aquifers and dense layers.  These layers and deposits interact with each other.  That is why a deposit, small in terms of reserves, discovered by an exploration well, has been a source of crater burning for a long time.

 Based on this, the institute's scientists proposed to drill an appraisal well at the Chaldzhulba field.  Due to the forced extraction of gas from the reservoir with the largest reserves, it is planned to turn the gas filtration flow and reduce its uncontrolled flow into the crater.  After reducing the intensity of gas inflow into the crater, it will be possible to isolate the surface of the crater.

 Due to such a decision, uncontrolled gas emissions into the atmosphere will be completely eliminated, scientists of the institute believe.