Flared

Attached to North Dakota’s regulations to lower the amount of associated natural gas flared in its booming oilfields are specific annual targets to reduce the number of flaring wells, volumes and the percentages on a year-to-year basis.

Coming off a 57% increase in crude oil sales in the Williston Basin in North Dakota in 1Q2014, Denver-based Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. executives are predicting the exploration/production company will slash its flared associated gas this year.

An MDU Resources Group Inc. subsidiary on Thursday announced a natural gas pipeline project that would stretch across the Bakken Shale from western North Dakota to western Minnesota, where it would connect with Viking Gas Transmission Co.’s gas system.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee put the spotlight on two important shale policy issues during its third and final forum on natural gas Thursday: the FracFocus chemical registry and whether a middle ground can be found in the dispute between the states and federal government over regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Although overall month-over-month totals were down, production rates set all-time high marks for oil and natural gas in February in North Dakota, state officials reported Tuesday.

Proposed energy bills in the North Dakota legislature continue to hold the spotlight as state lawmakers move closer to their scheduled May adjournment. At least one proposal that could have had a negative impact on oil/natural gas operators was defeated last Friday.

For industry and government officials in North Dakota hungry for new ways to reduce the nearly 30% of the state’s associated natural gas that is flared, it is unclear if an innovative approach from a Louisiana-based oil/gas field services firm using converted military helicopter jet engines will prove to be a panacea anytime soon.

In the rush to get more gathering and processing infrastructure in place to handle currently flared Bakken Shale associated gas, some hurdles are being met by wells with heavy concentrations of sour gas, or high hydrogen sulfide (H2S) levels, according to North Dakota energy officials.

Opposition to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) flared up in Ohio last week after about 100 protestors stormed an office and a water handling facility in one town, while an oil and gas oilfield service company threatened to take its business elsewhere if another town were to oppose drilling.