"Wasting" natural gas

Just read an interesting article in today's New York Times. it discussed how 30 percent of the natural gas produced in North Dakota is flared, or burned, off as waste because the producers really want the oil instead, and consider the gas too expensive to bring to market. This is from the Bakken shale field. According to the story, enough natural gas is burned off each day to heat half a million homes for a day. Also the flares are so big they light up the sky all around. Makes you think about what may be happening around here a few years from now... I recommend the article as it provides much information and food for thought.

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Permalink Reply by craig on September 27, 2011 at 7:31am

Without reading the article.......Maybe they are flaring because they don't have the infrastructure in place to market the gas and it would not be cost effective to build it at this time.

 

Permalink Reply by Mirabelle Dictu on September 27, 2011 at 8:25am
Yes, that's essentially what the article said. One guy was quoted as saying something like "pipelines are a pain." It's definitely a bottom line thing, but it's such a terrible waste of an irreplaceable resource... Seems to me.
0jw0dsu4txfuvPermalink Reply by 0jw0dsu4txfuv on September 28, 2011 at 2:43pm
Big Flares of gas not neccessarily mean lots of gas beeing burned. The oil from the Bakken is heavy oil and it has some gas in it but is too expensive at current prices to make it maraketable.

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