The flaring and venting of natural gas in the U.S. continues to soar, reaching new record highs in recent months.
The New York Times documented several “super emitters” in the Permian, using infrared cameras to visually capture the epidemic. The NYT even recorded an oil worker walking into an invisible plume of leaking methane. But shale drillers continue the practice and regulators have shown little interest in regulating them. Even though venting is off limits in North Dakota and restricted in Texas, flaring has largely gone unchecked while methane leaks at virtually every stage of the extraction process. In the third quarter of 2019, the Permian basin alone vented and flared 752 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, up sharply from 661 mcf/d in the first quarter, according to Rystad Energy. “This represents a new all-time high. Oil production in the Permian Basin is growing at an accelerated pace again, and we observe high, sustained levels of flaring and venting of associated gas in the basin,” Artem Abramov, head of shale research at Rystad, said in November. Some oil companies trumpet their reduced rate of flaring, but others have flared at higher rates. “A significant number of operators have exhibited a clear downwards shift in flaring intensity in 2019. Yet there are other examples of a recent increase in flaring intensity, which are primarily represented by some operators active in the Eastern Midland Basin,” Abramov said. Nick Note: Unless your are still under the fantasy that the US has a HA HA HA free economy where the FREE market decides things bullish. The reality is the refinery industry has stopped Natural gas from becoming a transportation fuel.. WHY because they don’t get to refine NG since its plug and play. And the big profits in the oil industry are the down stream refinery business. Get this many companies flare natural gas under the excuse their are no pipelines to take the gas to market. BULLSHIT again! the reality is its cheaper to flare NG rather then pay the pipeline transportation costs since NG prices are below the cost of production and transportation for many producers in the bonnies. Reality is Natural GAS (NG) is the equivalent of .25 cents a gallon gasoline. And your engine will run forever polluting less than an electric car whose batteries in most cases is charged by a coal fired generator down the road and out of sight….