environment

In June 2012 Bakken oil production reached 660 Mb/d with 0.7 Bcf/d of associated natural gas.  A third of that associated gas (32 percent or 0.22 Bcf/d) was flared at the wellhead. There are sound environmental and economic reasons why flaring occurs. In other States like Texas the percentage of flaring is tiny (0.5 percent). The answer to flaring is better infrastructure but huge investments in North Dakota could still not be enough to eliminate flaring. Today we shed new light on the issue.