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In the Russian coal industry there is next to no expert sentiment in favour. A source at Siberian Coal and Energy Company (SUEK), one of the dominant steam-coal miners and exporters (owned by Andrei Melnichenko and Sergei Popov), says that technologies for underground coal gasification were tried in the Soviet era, and subsequently abandoned in Russian coalmining practice.

The technology in use by Linc Energy is reportedly derived from the Soviet designs and well tests. The process is highly volatile, using high pressure combustion at temperatures ranging from 700 °C to 1,500 °C. Contamination of the acquifer and subsidence are also risks.

At Mechel Mining, Russia’s leading producer of coking coal, a source explains that in new mine planning in the Kuzbass region, and in Mechel’s new projects in Yakutia, there has been no exploitation of the gasification technology. “As far as I know, no one in Russia is engaged in it. So it is difficult to suggest what the demand is [for coal gasification in Russia]. In the former Soviet Union, there is one company that uses this technology – JSC Erostigaz in Uzbekistan. Maybe they have something to be able to comment.” Erostigas has no internet profile and is uncontactable.

Anatoly Skryl, head of the Russian coal industry think-tank RosInformUgol, is sceptical on cost. “[This technology] is nowhere available on a broad industrial scale. It would be good – not to go down into the earth, but fire up and get out the gas out to produce energy. But there are no cheap and effective technologies, though attempts are being made to find them.”
Alexei Kokin, energy analyst at Uralsib Bank in Moscow, says that such a search makes sense in countries which are short of gas, but not in Russia. “We have plenty of cheap gas. It might be interesting only for some coal companies which want to take some extra profit. In Australia, as in America, there is a very different situation. Therefore, these technologies will be used in Australia, maybe in the United States and China. It is irrelevant in our country, and will be irrelevant for another 20 years