Crude oil and natural gas production in the Bakken are at all-time highs, as are the volumes of gas being processed in and transported out of the play. The bad news is that for the past few months, the volumes of Bakken gas being flared are also at record levels, and producers as a whole have been exceeding the state of North Dakota’s goal on the percentage of gas that is flared at the lease rather than captured, processed and piped away. State regulators last week stood by their flaring goals, but in an effort to ease the squeeze they gave producers a lot more flexibility in what gas is counted — and not counted — when the flaring calculations are made. Today, we update gas production, processing and flaring in what’s been one of the nation’s hottest production regions.
North Dakota crude production grew by 39% between January 2017 and September 2018 to an even 1.3 MMb/d, according to the North Dakota Industrial Commission’s (NDIC) most recent numbers, and gas production was up an astonishing 62% over the same period, to about 2.53 Bcf/d. Those gains have put enormous pressure on the play’s infrastructure, and — of most interest to us in today’s blog — made it impossible for the state to meet its goals for reducing the percentage of produced gas that is flared.
Canadian crude output is rising, requiring new export routes. As traditional pathways face constraints, the U.S. Rockies—especially the Guernsey, WY hub—are emerging as key corridors for moving Canadian heavy crude to downstream markets, including the Gulf Coast.
Bakken flaring has been a perennial topic in the RBN blogosphere. As we said in There’s a Fire in the Night, producers in western North Dakota have been struggling with gas capture and flaring issues for the better part of the last decade. Back in 2011 and again in 2014, as much as 37% of the produced gas was being flared due to a lack of processing and takeaway capacity. That made the night sky in the Bakken resemble the greater Chicago area, and spurred the NDIC to require exploration and production companies (E&Ps) to file a “gas capture plan” (GCP) with their drilling permits and put in place flaring limits. The new rules limit flaring to one year after first production from a well, after which time producers have to do one of the following: connect the well to a gas gathering pipeline, cap it, or link it to an electrical generator or a compression or liquefaction system that consumes at least 75% of the gas onsite. Regulators also set targets for reducing the share of produced gas that is burned off statewide: flaring no more than 26% of total gas production by November 2014, 23% by January 2015, 20% by April 2016, 15% by November 2016, 12% by November 2018 and 9% by November 2020.
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About the song
“Take It Easy” was written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey. It appears as the first song on side one of the Eagles’ debut album, Eagles. Released as the first single from the album in May 1972, it went to #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. The song was written by Browne and Frey when they lived in the same apartment building at 1020 Laguna Avenue in the Echo Park community of Los Angeles. Browne would later record the song for his second studio album, For Everyman. There is a “Take It Easy” Glenn Frey statue in Corner Park in Winslow, AZ, in tribute to the song. Personnel on the record were: Glenn Frey (lead vocal, acoustic guitar), Bernie Leadon (lead guitar, banjo, backing vocal), Randy Meisner (bass, backing vocal), and Don Henley (drums, backing vocal).
The album, Eagles, was recorded in February 1972 at Olympic Studios in London and Wally Heider Recording in Los Angeles with Glyn John producing. Released in June 1972, it went to #22 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Three Top 40 singles were released from the LP.
The Eagles are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1971. They have released 10 studio albums, three live albums, 10 compilation albums, and 30 singles. They have had five #1 singles and six #1 albums, and have sold more than 200 million records worldwide. The Eagles have won five American Music Awards and six Grammy Awards, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. They received Kennedy Center Honors in 2016. Nine members have passed through the group since its formation. Founding member Glenn Frey died in 2016; Randy Meisner died in 2023. The group continues to record and tour and will finish their The Long Goodbye Final Tour in March 2024.
