Central Asian Workers, Russians Fight In Gas Field

A massive fight among hundreds of migrant workers from Central Asia broke out over the weekend at Gazprom’s Kovykta gas field, where workers are under pressure to build infrastructure to meet the terms of a natural gas supply contract to China, Alex Kimani reported for OilPrice.com.

Photo Insert: Thousands of shift workers from the poorer states are building infrastructure at Gazprom's Kovykta field.

Russian social media said nine workers had been hospitalized after the initial fighting broke out on June 23 and then spread throughout the natural gas development complex in Eastern Siberia.

Thousands of shift workers from the poorer states are building infrastructure at the Kovykta field, which was inaugurated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December 2022, with Gazprom looking to ramp up gas output to meet its commitments to China.

Gazprom is under contract to supply China with 38 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year after 2025, with all that gas to come from Kovykta and Chayanda located 800 kilometers apart and linked to China by the Sila Sibiri 1 pipeline.

Gazprom started producing gas from the Kovykta gas condensate field–one of the largest undeveloped natural gas fields in Eastern Russia with estimated reserves of 2 trillion cubic meters of natural gas–only last year.

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