Russian energy monopoly OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) launched Friday a project to extract gas from goal, one of Russia's steps into unconventional ways to produce gas.
"A new project has been launched, a very interesting project to extract gas from shale," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said after the inaugural ceremony in the West Siberian coal-mining region of Kemerovo.
"It's good that we have already got down to work," Medvedev told officials during a meeting on energy matters in comments released by the Kremlin.
The Kremlin chief said the new technology would help make coal mining safer in a country known for its high accident rate in the industry.
Friday's project to extract methane from coal was launched at the Taldinskoye field in Siberia's coal-rich Kuzbass region.
Alexei Miller, chief executive of Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer, said Russia's coal gas resources stood at 84 trillion cubic meters, which accounts for one-third of all natural gas resources in the country.
"Today we have taken an important step on the path to creating a new subindustry in Russia's fuel and energy complex," Miller said in a statement released by Gazprom.
The statement said the company planned to produce around 4 billion cubic meters (bcm) of coal gas in the Kuzbass region, planning to ramp up production to 18-21 bcm in the long-term.
Countries such as the U.S. are successfully developing unconventional technologies to extract gas, a move that is potentially upsetting for major traditional gas producers such as Russia.