North Dakota gives industry 10 extra months to cull flaring

North Dakota is way behind other states when it comes to capturing the natural gas associated with oil production. About 20 percent is now burned off in North Dakota because the infrastructure isn’t there to move it to market.

The oil industry is required to capture 85 percent of natural gas by January 1.

North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness said the industry group could support the 85 percent goal by November 2016, but he referred to the past year as evidence of how hard it is to predict what will happen by 2020.

Environmentalists oppose any extension and note the volume of gas flared in the state continues to rise as more oil wells are drilled, despite the best intentions of existing regulations.

Under the commission’s mandate, producers face production curtailment penalties if they fail to meet these flaring reduction benchmarks.

“We are not moving the goalposts”.

The number of drilling rigs has plummeted in North Dakota due to low prices but production remains at near-record levels as drillers concentrate rigs in high-producing areas.

He and Dille said the industry needs help obtaining easements and right-of-way, referring to two pipelines that would remove 6 percent of the total gas being flared but have been delayed or canceled because of hurdles with federal agencies and landowners.

The rule had been that 90% of natural gas must be captured by the year 2020.

Despite the disagreements in the method and timeline, the commission says the goal is still the same – to reduce the burning torches in the state’s oil patch.

Wayde Schafer, a spokesman for the North Dakota chapter of the Sierra Club, said he sees little assurance that flaring will actually be reduced beyond 10 percent, and objected to the 10-month extension of next year’s target.

Ness says that while the goals are a bit aggressive getting the additional 10 months, for new pipeline and processing plant infrastructure is key to reducing the flaring. “I guess I was wrong”.

“If you were to extrapolate this out, I think that we better be really aware of the fact that this could cause some significant problems for our next budget”.