https://www.google.com/maps/place/40%C2%B015%2709.4%22N+58%C...

One of the late Turkmenbashi's many hare-brained policies was that citizens get natural gas for free, which leads to stupid things like most people keeping a gas stove on 24/7 (because gas is free, but matches and lighters aren't!).

http://www.rferl.org/content/turkmenistan-free-gas-ends/2523...

First, the gas seeps up through the ground, not through a single bore at the surface. So it is hard to capture.

Second, the amount of gas coming out of that hole is simply not that enormous. Enormous by an individual human scale, but by and large, it doesn't have the same menacing quality as a high pressure oil well being on fire. You can walk right up to the crater's edge without protection, while the oil well fires radiate so much heat you can't even get close. I doubt it's a significant amount of gas leakage, compared to what the country already drills for.

It's also in the middle of nowhere. Quite literally, it's almost exactly in the middle of the turkmen desert.