Posted on 09/07/2007 5:16:50 PM PDT by lduucckkyy
Up to 170 billion cubic meters of natural gas are "flared" by the world's oil producers every year. The economic value amounts to $40 billion, but the burden on the earth's atmosphere -- in warming emissions like methane and carbon dioxide -- is enormous.
In spite of all the recent talk about climate change, the Kyoto Protocol and tight energy resources in Europe, the oil industry continues to burn huge volumes of natural gas that rises from oil deposits on land or under the sea. Over 20 countries have increased the practice of "flaring" in the last 12 years, and some burn far more gas on drilling platforms and in oil fields than they've admitted, officially, so far.
America's weather-data department, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), came to this conclusion in a new report based on American satellite data. The study was financed by the World Bank, which five years ago started a global initiative to change the long-established practice of flaring gas and to capture it for energy use instead.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
I wonder if these gases that they burn off by flaring could be used to run generators ? instead of wasting it.
Well, OK, I can see the desire to put the gas to some real use ... but it's gonna go into the atmosphere anyway, once it's burned.
Just holding off the next Ice Age.
This seems like wasted energy, but the concern here is for the environment. The whackos would probably prefer that we just shut these wells in.
True, but if the oil companies don’t want that $40 billion dollars, I’d like $10 million or so for just one year.
Indeed... I'm sure we'll hear any minute now that the farts from 1000 cows are far worse than this. /s
“Indeed... I’m sure we’ll hear any minute now that the farts from 1000 cows are far worse than this. /s”
The real reason for the demise of the dinosaurs is the green freaks concerned with Trex farts.
Bingo! It costs them more to capture it than its worth. Thus they burn it off.
They won't let us drill for oil off the Cape or So Cal.
Ok, Drill and just tap the gas and let's use it for our cars. Duh....
No, Chaos, you need a pipeline, to sell gas....and they are expensive.
Don’t you think that the prudent thing to do would be to test the well to see if you can commercially produce it before you spend millions to put in a pipeline? But that’s me. I am an investor, and I don’t agree with hillary’s policies.
You are making my point about it being to expensive to use the gas.
In the business, this is called “stranded” or “associated” gas. If it was economical to send the gas somewhere, you can bet the owner of the well would do it. If someone wants to pay the cost of doing something other than flare it, they are welcome to get out their checkbook.
If government wants to write the check, it can only get the money from the taxpayer, who we presume is also the customer who is bidding for the output of the well. If the government wants to regulate well drilling to force the owner to do something with the gas, it will only serve to decrease the number of wells that are drilled, because it will raise costs, and therefore raise the bar about justifying the entire drilling project.
Imagine how much gas Ted Kennedy ‘flairs’ off.
Yep, productively using the energy would be just as bad as flaring it (in their demented reasoning). IOW, there's no pleasing them.
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