Turkmenistan said on June 5 that it had significantly extinguished the Karakum desert "Door to Hell" gas fire that had been raging for half a century since a Soviet drilling expedition went wrong.

Potent greenhouse gas methane has been pouring from the fiery Darvaza crater left by the accident since 1971. The phenomenon became a much sought-after destination for intrepid tourists determined to win permission to visit the site in the tightly-controlled reclusive country, but at the same time it became an embarrassment to “super-emitter” Turkmenistan. That was especially the case from December 2023, when the Turkmen regime pledged to cut its emissions of planet-heating methane as it joined the Global Methane Pledge.

It is believed that the fire was lit after the Soviet scientists who found themselves in a mess after collapsing a pocket of gas in a trial well decided the best way of stopping pure gas spewing into the surrounding environment was to ignite it.

In the summer of 2019, Turkmenistan’s then president, the stunt-obsessed wacky strongman Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, was shown on state television supposedly doing doughnuts in a car only metres away from the edge of the crater. But it was Berdimuhamedov, nowadays “Leader of the Nation” (the presidency was handed to son Serdar), who in June 2023 determined that it was he who would be remembered as the man who closed the "Door to Hell", sometimes called the “Shining of Karakum”.

Scientists at the Turkmengaz state holding, meanwhile, let it be known that they may have finally hit on a way of granting Berdimuhamedov his wish.

Announcing the major shrinking of the fire, a Turkmengaz  official said it had been reduced three-fold, as reported by AFP.

"Whereas before a huge glow from the blaze was visible from several kilometres away, hence the name ‘Door to Hell', today only a faint source of combustion remains," Irina Luryeva, a director and laboratory head at Turkmengaz, was quoted as saying.

Numerous wells were drilled around the fire to capture methane, she was also reported as saying, speaking at an environmental conference in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat.

In January 2022, the BBC spoke to the first man to descend through the Door to Hell.