August 13, 2018 – Houston Public Media
Report: Texas Natural Gas Flaring at Record Highs
By Travis Bubenik
Drillers in Texas are flaring natural gas at record-high levels, according to a new report from Austin-based industry research firm Drillinginfo.
The uptick is due to the huge increases in West Texas oil production, which is itself at all-time highs. All that oil drilling brings up a lot of extra gas – known as “associated gas” in the industry – but drillers don’t have enough pipelines to get the gas to markets. So, they burn it off into the air instead.
Read the full article here: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2018/08/13/299613/report-texas-natural-gas-flaring-at-record-highs/
As it stands, flaring isn’t costing drillers much, so they’re likely to just wait for the new pipelines. The analyst firm RBN Energy notes that crude oil pipelines are “filled to the brim” as well, but says the Permian Basin oil and gas market could be headed for a “breakout” once new pipelines to move both commodities are finished.
“Massive infrastructure development is coming to the basin and the takeaway capacity constraints will be history – at least for a while,” the firm says.
