In North Dakota, Flames of Wasted Natural Gas Light the Prairie

[n2doc]

Thirty percent of the natural gas extracted in North Dakota is flared off, like this gas near Ray.


By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
Published: September 26, 2011

NEW TOWN, N.D. — Across western North Dakota, hundreds of fires rise above fields of wheat and sunflowers and bales of hay. At night, they illuminate the prairie skies like giant fireflies.

They are not wildfires caused by lightning strikes or other acts of nature, but the deliberate burning of natural gas by oil companies rushing to extract oil from the Bakken shale field and take advantage of the high price of crude. The gas bubbles up alongside the far more valuable oil, and with less economic incentive to capture it, the drillers treat the gas as waste and simply burn it.

Every day, more than 100 million cubic feet of natural gas is flared this way — enough energy to heat half a million homes for a day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/business/energy-environment/in-north-dakota-wasted-natural-gas-flickers-against-the-sky.html

[MineralMan]

1. Not just in North Dakota. In my little CA home town,

I can see a flare from my parents house, up on a hill. It has been burning since I was a child in the 1950s. It's a landmark. Gas flares burn all over the world. Typically, they burn because the gas is "sour" or because the cost of piping it somewhere is too high to make economic sense. Wherever oil is produced, you'll find flares. Comes with the industry, I'm afraid. It's a huge waste, but piping small productions of natural gas from remote well sites, especially if it is "sour" gas, is usually not an economical thing to do.

Information on "sour" gas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sour_gas

[BridgeTheGap]

6. The burn enough in one day to heat a half million homes for a year. Wow!

It must not be "sour" gas, because ND is developing plans to capture it.
This just points to the need for nationalizing energy production.
"Every day across the western half of North Dakota 100 million cubic feet of natural gas — enough energy to heat nearly half a million homes for a year." from the ny times article

[MineralMan]

7. The ffields have expanded quickly, and the collection system

has not followed as quickly. Also, a lot of ND gas is sour, but there are refineries to handle that. Once the collection system is in place, the flaring will stop. See the PDF file in the link below.

[BridgeTheGap]

8. thanks. n.t

[binarysunrise]

9. What a waste

"Once the collection system is in place, the flaring will stop" - this seems a perfect case of where one should hold off until the technology/capability is at hand. There's no getting back this unused gas.

[MineralMan]

2. Here's an interesting pdf file from the ND DNR.

It explains the reasons for Natural Gas flaring in the ND fields, and what is being done about it. It seems that collection piping networks are being built into these new areas.

https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/newsletter/winter09/PDF/So%20why_gas%20flares.pdf

[sharp_stick]

3. Interesting

I wasn't sure how they would make it feasible to collect this.

[izquierdista]

4. #1 crime against the environment

All because it would take a little thought, effort, and money to put it to use. It's not just the fault of our capitalist system; the Soviets flared off even more in their day.

[RC]

5. High profits first and foremost.

They could pump the gas back into the formation, but that cost another well.

[Nihil]

10. "Every day, more than 100 million cubic feet of natural gas is flared this way"

Talk about sheer profit-led waste?!

:grr:

[jberryhill]

11. Nigeria from space

[NickB79]

12. I wonder how many tons of CO2 that puts out every year? nt