G2G Captures Bakken Natural Gas

The story that immediately precedes this one (unless some stories in draft get posted later) is the update of the incredible CLR Whitmore 2 well on the Hawkinson-Whitman Eco-Pad. In that post I noted that no natural gas from the well was flared during the first full month of production. I assume it was a natural gas pipeline that was hooked up but it easily could have been a G2G dry-gas-to-liquids converter.

A new Montana start-up is using a trailer-mounted DGTL converter to capture natural gas that would otherwise be flared. The liquid product is then sold for profit.

There are several interesting data points in the linked article:

• North Dakota operators are allowed to flare for up to one year without a waiver (the article doesn't say more, but I believe production is reduced during the first year if excess gas is flared); I don't think operators can flare gas without restrictions for the entire year, but I could be wrong (see this post for more; I think it's more complicated than the writer lets on)
• Montaa allows flaring for two months before waivers are required

I was surprised how few wells, in the big scheme of things, are actually flaring gas in North Dakota. About 1,100 wells are flaring gas; 4,400 are hooked up to a pipeline and not flaring. Considering that 200 wells/month are drilled (maybe more) one would expect at least 250 wells be flaring simply because they are still in the first month of production. I don't know how fast G2G can start capturing natural gas that would otherwise be flared.

The article notes:

Last fall, the New York Times reported that North Dakota was flaring 100 million cubic feet of natural gas each day, enough to heat half a million homes for a day. The flaring releases at least 2 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, an amount equivalent to a medium-sized coal-fired power plant, the Times reported.

For those wondering how much CO2 New Yorkers exhale/produce in one year, it is almost exactly one million tons. One person exhales approximately 0.66 pounds of CO2 daily (New York marathon runners would produce slightly more). Using the official population of NYC at about 8 million (in fact, the metropolitan area and all the commuters coming in each day to work would be significantly more) and 365 days/year, and 2,000 lbs/ton, one gets slightly under one million tons each year.

One million tons is in the same Yankee ballpark as wells in North Dakota, especially since I was very, very conservative on estimating the population during the work day.

If one wishes, and I don't, one can probably calculate the amount of methane New Yorkers produce on an annual basis. My hunch is New Yorkers could heat the United Nations buildings if they were willing to capture their personal methane.