> “They don’t have other places where they can sell their gas, so they have to burn it,” ... <
I couldn’t get the article to load. Can someone explain that? Why not just store what they’ve got, and slow down production?
Most oil and gas facilities will have a ‘flaring’ system of pressure control. It’s a constant flame used to bleed off excess natural gas that is impractical to store.
Chances are that facility has been doing it for years but the hyperventilating press just noticed it!
There are a few reasons for doing this. At some facilities oil production produces natural gas. Basically both the oil and the natural gas are trapped underground. If you dig a hole to it, both come up. So if they can’t shut off the natural gas without also shutting off the oil.
Another potential reason is that it can be costly and difficult
to shut down and restart production systems. Cheaper to keep them running and throw away the product.
In colder months and regions it can also be damaging to the machinery to let it sit idle and freeze. Russia often produces a surplus in the winter because they can’t slow production without risking damage.
“Why not just store what they’ve got, and slow down production?
Their limited storage is full. To slow down production, they have to cap wells. Once they do that, the pipes are subject to freezing and cracking. After a Winter, they would have to run new pipes, as well as repair/redrill the well itself - almost like starting over. There are huge restart expenses and delays, for any parts of their network that are shut down over the winter.
So they leave the gas running, and just flare it off, into the atmosphere.
Something to do with keeping the flow going in the pipelines. If it drops below freezing then it damaged the line. Cheaper to keep the flow and burn it off at the end because Russia doesn’t have the facilities to store it.