An inventory of natural gas losses from the former Soviet Union's gas indus
try has been constructed from published Russian-language sources. The resul
ts imply that in the late 1980s/early 1990s annual losses from Russia were
in the range 35-59 x 10(9) cubic meters (24-40 Tg of CH4): estimates based
on what are thought to be the more reliable sources place annual losses in
the range 37-52 x 10(9) cubic meters (25-35 Tg of CH4). Of this amount, one
half to two thirds of the emissions may have been from the extremely long
and ageing gas pipeline system. Extrapolation of the estimates for Russian
losses to the whole territory of the former Soviet Union suggests a probabl
e total annual emission level from the whole ex-Soviet gas industry in the
range 47-67 x 10(9) cubic meters of natural gas or 31-45 Tg of CH4 in these
years. The envelope of minimum and maximum estimates for emissions from th
e former Soviet Union ranges from 29 to 50 Tg of methane. The limited avail
ability of systematic and accurate published information on the emissions i
ntroduces significant uncertainty into the estimate. In an attempt to const
rain emissions better, estimates of losses from specific causes were made u
sing two or more independent approaches, where possible. A reasonable agree
ment between estimates was achieved in those cases. Our results imply that
substantial reductions in emissions could be achieved by investment to redu
ce losses. Because of the high global warming potential and short lifetime
of methane compared to carbon dioxide, reducing the large losses from the F
SU may be among the most cost-effective short-term approaches available to
reduce global anthropogenic greenhouse warming.