Climate change: Biggest methane gas leak occurred at Russian coalmine, say reports

The biggest leak of methane gas in the world seems to have occurred at a coalmine in Russia, media reports said citing satellite data. This comes as the world is looking to take measures to cut emissions to keep a check on climate change. In January, around 90 tonnes of methane gas were released per hour from the Raspadskaya mine in Kemerovo Oblast. It is the largest coalmine in Russia. The release is enough to run around five coal-fired power stations. If this amount of gas could have been used for the whole year, it would have been enough to power 2.4 million homes.

The gas leak was first traced to the source in January, as per GHGSat data. It is a Canada-based commercial satellite monitoring company. The firm believes that this is the biggest leak ever traced to a single source.

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Around 13 distinct methane plumes were measured from the mine. They had ranged in size from 658 to 17,994 kg per hour, GHGSat said.

“We are seeing an increase in methane from this site generally, which could be the result of increased coal production, linked to global trends in coal use,” said Brody Wight, director of energy, landfill and mines at GHGSat.

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Now, the mine seems to be leaking gas at a low rate. The leak also seems to have been happening for around six months before the survey in January.

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(With inputs from agencies)

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