Flaring

Updates

March 10, 2013: In the most recent Director's Cut:

Additions to gathering and processing capacity are helping with the percentage of gas flared holding at 29%. The historical high was 36% in September 2011.

This is quite impressive. The percent of flaring is dropping even as a) the number of wells being drilled is going up; and, b) production of both gas and oil is increasing. One could improve the number if the NDIC increased restrictions on flaring. The NDIC has to thread the needle with regard to oil production vs flaring.

January 27, 2013: FT has story about US shale --> flaring. Fails to a) provide denominator of new wells; and, b) fails to note that the trend in flaring in North Dakota has been decreasing despite an increase in production of both oil and natural gas.

Original Post

Two links for future reference:

• Global flaring. In 2010, the US did not even make the list. Source: NOAA, provided by EIA.
• Natural gas flaring in the United States in 2012. The US now appears on the list and moves into fifth place according to the linked story. This is a bit dated, having been published in July, 2012, but does provide some nice data points going forward.