“Some companies are actually pumping NG back into the ground because they cannot vent it, burn it, nor store it.”
I haven’t heard that. In light of the low gas prices previously prevailing, it was my understanding that some operators might not make the investment to construct gathering lines and pipelines to get gas to market and therefore would leave their gas wells shut in to wait for higher prices.
The only reason to vent or flare gas would be in a well producing both oil and gas where there is lack of a market for the gas but you want to produce the oil.
The only reason I am familiar with for injecting gas (other than into a storage field) would be to keep the reservoir pressured up for greater ultimate production of oil.
“...where there is lack of a market for the gas but you want to produce the oil.”
But this is the quandary. There’s a market for NG virtually anywhere, but my understanding is that NG is a byproduct of virtually *any* hydrocarbon drilling operation. And not in trace quantities. If they are getting oil, they are getting NG. As well as some number of other liquids, napthas, etc; They can accumulate the napthas in a reasonably-sized tank and truck them away from time to time. But they cannot, lacking a pipeline, lacking a high-volume NG compressor (a serious piece of equipment, NG does not liquefy like propane, it needs 3000+ psi and massive cryogenic-grade refrigeration to be liquefied) get the NG outta there, to market or to storage.