The organization was established on 17 June 1949 and was primarily called the All-Union Research and Design Institute of Underground Coal Gasification or VNIIPodzemgaz. It was created from the Laboratory of Underground Gasification of the All-Union Gas Research Institute, and developed technologies of underground coal, oil shale and petroleum gasification. The first director of VNIIPodzemgaz was Andrey Chernyshov. Under his direction, the basis of technology of underground coal gasification was developed and awarded the Stalin prize. In 1954, technicians of VNIIPodzemgaz made hydraulic fracturing of the coal-bed for the first time in the world. In 1964, VNIIPodzemgaz was renamed as the All-Union Research and Designed Institute of Industrial Gasification or VNIIPromgaz. VNIIPromgaz developed methods to increase the efficiency of gas use, new types of gas-powered equipment, and researched underground reservoirs in rock formation. The organization created more than 40 new types of gas burner devices. In the 1970s, the organization transformed into the all-Union research association, which consisted of the following:
During these years, the organization was headed by Nikolay Fyodorov. The staff consisted of about 4,000 employees, including 1,000 research and technical workers. In 1975, the license for underground coal gasification technology was sold to Texas Utilities for US$2 million. Since the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, the organization worked as the Coordinating Сentre for the Comecon countries on development of methods to use gas as a fuel and the creation of gas-powered equipment. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and a series of reforms, VNIIPromgaz became Open Joint Stock Company Promgaz and was entirely focused on the development of technologies for effective gas use. In 1998, a group of experts, headed by professor Alexander Karasevich, came into Promgaz from VNIIGAZ. They added the research of coalbed methane, development of small hydrocarbon fields and planning of natural gas supply as new business fields of the company. One of the main operations became the schemes for gas supply of many regions of Russia. In 2008, Promgaz was renamed to OJSC Gazprom Promgaz. In February 2013, professor Yury Spector became CEO. In 2014, the company projected the general scheme for gas supply of Kyrgyzstan. In 2015, Oleg Andreyev became CEO. OJSC Gazprom Promgaz was renamed to JSC Gazprom Promgaz. The company projected the general schemes for gas supply of South Ossetia and Armenia.
Operations
Gazprom Promgaz plans gas transportation and its distribution systems, as well as investigating various research in the field of natural gas. The company is the general planner of the natural gas supply program for Russian regions, developed by Gazprom. The company is also a research center of Gazprom in the field of regional power systems, the supply, distribution and use of gas, efficient energy use and energy-savings, price setting for construction of gas industry objectives, the development of regional hydrocarbon fields and development of non-traditional hydrocarbon resources including coal bed methane.
