Infamous ‘Gateway to Hell’ Fire Could Finally Stop Raging After 50 Years

Turkmenistan mentioned Thursday it had considerably decreased a gasoline fireplace that has been raging for part a century at a website dubbed the “Gateway to Hell” .

The fireplace has been burning within the Karakum barren region since 1971, when Soviet scientists by chance drilled into an underground pocket of gasoline after which determined to ignite it.

The blaze has been spewing out large amounts of methane, a gasoline that contributes to local weather trade, ever since.

Officials mentioned the hearth – which has grow to be the reclusive nation’s best vacationer enchantment – have been decreased threefold, with out specifying the time period.

“Whereas before a huge glow from the blaze was visible from several kilometers away, hence the name ‘Gateway to Hell’, today only a faint source of combustion remains,” mentioned Irina Luryeva, a director at state-owned power corporate Turkmengaz.

Numerous wells had been drilled across the fireplace to seize methane, she mentioned at an environmental convention within the capital Ashgabat.

Turkmenistan – one of the crucial international’s maximum closed international locations – is estimated to have the sector’s fourth greatest gasoline reserves.

It is the sector’s greatest emitter of methane via gasoline leaks, in line with the International Energy Agency – a declare denied by means of the government.

© Agence France-Presse