Flaring

The Interior Department’s plans to rescind most of an Obama-era rule governing associated natural gas flaring and venting on public and tribal lands is welcome news for operators of marginal, aka stripper, wells on such lands. Oil and gas industry experts and analysts say the rescission could save smaller operators’ livelihoods and spare tens of thousands of wells from becoming uneconomical and shut in.

A coalition of 21 environmental and citizens’ groups asked a federal district court in San Francisco to block the Trump administration’s plans to rescind most of an Obama-era rule governing associated natural gas flaring and venting on public and tribal lands.

The Department of Interior (DOI) moved Tuesday to rescind most of an Obama-era rule governing associated natural gas flaring and venting on public and tribal lands while revising the remaining provisions, calling the parts of the rule marked for rescission “unnecessarily burdensome” for the oil and gas industry.

Wyoming regulators have approved ATX Energy Partners’ request to flare for a short period natural gas that exceeds state limits at three wells in Johnson County in the Powder River Basin (PRB).

Record associated natural gas production from the Bakken Shale’s continuing oil boom in North Dakota remains a top concern for both the industry and the state, executives said last week.

ExxonMobil Corp. on Wednesday set a two-year target to reduce natural gas flaring by 25% and methane emissions by 15% to improve overall business operations.

Just six weeks after a federal judge in California ruled that parts of an Obama-era rule governing associated natural gas flaring and venting on public and tribal lands should take effect, a federal judge in Wyoming on Wednesday reversed course and issued a stay, giving the Trump administration more time to revise or rescind the rule.

While federal agencies are rolling back Obama-era rules to curb methane emissions, an environmental group’s report is seeking to make Wyoming a poster child for updating restrictions on wellhead natural gas flaring.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is pushing back against efforts in federal district court to derail the Trump administration’s decision to postpone the compliance dates for rules governing associated natural gas flaring and venting on public and tribal lands, calling the rules suspension “a commonsense, time-limited solution to a practical problem.”