The Door to Hell is a natural gas field in Derweze, Ahal
Province, Turkmenistan. The site was identified by Soviet engineers in 1971. The
engineers set up a drilling rig and camp nearby, and started drilling
operations to assess the quantity of gas reserve available at the site. They
found gas resources and started to store the gas but ground beneath the
drilling rig and camp collapsed into a wide crater and large quantities of methane
gas were released. Keeping in view the environmental problem and posing a
potential danger to the people of the nearby villages they decided to burn it
off. At that time, expectations were that the gas would burn out within a few
weeks, but has continued to burn more than four decades after it was set on
fire. The gas reserve found here is one of the largest in the world. The
government of Turkmenistan
plans to increase its production of natural gas, intending to increase its
export of gas to Pakistan,
China, India,
Iran, Russia,
and Western Europe from its present level to
75 million cubic metres in the next 20 years.
Images of the Door to Hell, Derweze, Turkmenistan
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