Flaring

Satellite photographs that purported to show light of wellhead natural gas flaring in the Bakken Shale more intense than that of major metropolitan areas were mischaracterized and distorted, according to researchers at the University of North Dakota’s (UND) Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC).

North Dakota officials reported Monday another monthly increase in oil and gas production, albeit modest, but they focused more on what is being viewed as a lack of progress in reducing the amount of flared associated gas at the wellhead. The most recent results were for May.

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.

With mandated gas capture plans and better long-range communications with midstream processing/gathering system operators, North Dakota’s full-court press to greatly cut the percentage of associated gas flared at the wellhead is taking on a new life.

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple told a record crowd of nearly 4,200 participants at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference Wednesday that the past days of relatively light regulation of the oil and gas industry in his state are over.

The oil and gas division of North Dakota's Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) is planning a public hearing later this month for input on newly adopted Industrial Commission policy to reduce the amount of gas flaring at the wellhead.

State and national initiatives (see Shale Daily, March 13) to significantly cut flaring of associated gas in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale fields will result in some short-term cutbacks in the state’s record production growth, the state’s chief oil/natural gas regulator said Thursday.

Three U.S. senators from fossil fuel-rich North Dakota and Wyoming introduced legislation Wednesday to combat associated natural gas flaring at the wellhead on federal and Native American lands.

North Dakota’s top oil and natural gas regulator on Monday outlined a new effort by the state to combat associated gas flaring at the wellhead as the amounts surged in the most recent production report.