given how much natural gas they’re flaring off in the Baaken —I would think it reasonable to switch every motor in that area to natural gas.
looks like that’s going to happen:
Or so says General Electric (NYSE: GE ) . Putting its money where its mouth is, GE developed a variety of natural gas related products. These include small-scale liquefied natural gas and compressed natural gas fueling stations, so called “LNG in a Box” and “CNG in a Box” products. The idea is these “in a box” stations are self-contained, easy to use, and inexpensive natural gas fueling stations amenable to rapid and widespread deployment.
One market that could quickly switch from diesel to natural gas is the natural gas and oil exploration industry. Currently, drillers use electricity from diesel generators. Last August, GE received so-called “mobile certification” from the U.S. EPA for its Waukesha line of natural gas burning generators. These generators can use natural gas directly from the well to produce on-site electricity — an attractive alternative to the practice of “flaring” or just burning off the gas. Devon Energy, for example, selected GE’s natural gas generators for its submersible pump operations.http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/01/20/will-2014-be-the-year-of-natural-gas.aspx
Both of those require what is still missing in much of the Bakken, natural gas gathering piping systems and processing plants. If those did exist, the flaring would not be an issue.