Russia breaks ground on coalbed methane LNG plant: press

Russia's Gazprom has begun building a small-scale LNG plant at the Naryksko-Ostashkinskoye coalbed methane (CBM) field in the Kemerovo region of southwest Siberia, the country's first such facility, Vedomosti reported on June 24.

The plant is due to start up in the first quarter of 2023 and will reach its full 222,000 metric ton/year capacity the following year. It is expected to supply LNG as fuel for mining equipment, housing and communal services, and for vehicles.

According to Vedomosti, exploration work at Naryksko-Ostashkinskoye got underway in 2011 and to date, some 33 wells have been drilled. Gazprom completed a system for extracting CBM at the field in February this year, and could drill as many as 110 more wells, the newspaper reported.

The Kemerovo region is a major coal mining area, and very little gas is currently produced there. As such, much of its industry and power generation is based on coal.