Free Republic

Increases in North Dakota's crude oil production have resulted in increased associated natural gas production from oil reservoirs, especially in the Bakken region. Because of insufficient infrastructure to collect, gather, and transport this natural gas, about one-fifth of North Dakota's natural gas production is flared rather than marketed. North Dakota's Industrial Commission (NDIC) has established natural gas capture targets in an effort to reduce the amount of flared gas, and they recently issued a revision to the flaring targets in response to faster-than-expected gas production growth in the Bakken region. North Dakota's current target is to capture and sell at...

The new leader of North Dakota’s oil-rich Three Affiliated Tribes is pledging to speed negotiations on a proposed pipeline through tribal land that would curb the wasteful burning of natural gas in the state by more than 10 percent. North Dakota’s booming oil production has led to an unmanageable increase in the state’s output of natural gas, which is a byproduct of oil production. Oneok Inc., the biggest operator of natural gas pipelines and processing plants in North Dakota, wants to build a 20-mile-long pipeline to capture natural gas from oil wells in Dunn County and move it to an...

North Dakota’s natural gas production rose nearly 40 million cubic feet per day in July, a 3 percent increase, and the state’s gas capture also rose, increasing from 72 percent in June to 74 percent in July indicating that the industry’s efforts to capture more gas are working. However, those are cumulative statistics with some operators capturing more than 74 percent and others capturing less as drilling activity continuing to rise. The state’s Department of Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms said the industry “will have to work very hard” in order to meet the upcoming requirements set by the North...

New legislation offers North Dakota oil drillers tax breaks beginning Monday if they stop burning and wasting natural gas. The Republican-sponsored bills passed the Legislature this year. They offer oil companies tax incentives for capturing and using the byproduct of the state’s booming crude production.

CASPER, Wyo. — A Casper company is selling a product that it believes could address one of Wyoming’s burning energy issues — and business is booming. Moser Energy Systems, a 40-year-old company in west Casper, has since 2010 built and sold a special brand of engine to oil field operators. The engine changes the way operators deal with unwanted natural gas from oil wells, a resource normally burned off in a process called flaring. Instead of burning that gas solely to prevent emissions, oil operators can use a natural gas-powered Moser engine to generate electricity for their well pad —...

See NASA Graphic at link. NASA Earth Observatory's Suomi Satellite captured the night time glow from hundreds of flares from rigs drilled into the Bakken shale oil formation of North Dakota, a 360-million-year-old tectonic plate, creating a light show the size of metropolitan Boston. Fracking of the Bakken formation has liberated the oil that lies within...Flaring burns off excess natural gas during oil production. The controversial process effectively wastes a natural resource while simultaneously emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As of 2011, more than 35 per cent of North Dakota's natural gas production was burnt off in flares according...