ND Gas Flaring Doubles Since 2011; In 2012 Alone Totalled 2.5 Million Tons Of CO2

[hatrack]

EDIT

So much flaring is occurring in the Bakken shale region — the source of the crude oil that spilled and exploded in several recent rail accidents — that the flames from the flares across the western North Dakota have been seen from space.

All the flared natural gas in North Dakota was responsible for 4.5 million metric tons of CO2 — greenhouse gases roughly the equivalent of adding 1 million cars to U.S. highways in 2012, according to estimates released last year by nonprofit sustainability group Ceres. “Gas that is flared is not gas that they (the energy industry) are making revenue off of,” said the EIA report’s co-author Michael Ford, an industrial economist for the agency. “In that sense, you can say that it’s wasted.”

The amount of nonmarketable gas produced every day in the state has nearly doubled since 2011. Data released Friday from the EIA and the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources show that about 0.31 billion cubic feet of natural gas is being produced every day in North Dakota, up from the 0.16 billion cubic feet in 2011.

North Dakota's Bakken shale alone is responsible for 22 percent of all the natural gas flared in oil and gas fields nationwide, according to the EIA. The state has made some gains, however, in using that nonmarketed gas in other ways. Nonmarketed natural gas as a percentage of North Dakota’s total natural gas production has decreased to 33 percent in 2013 from 37 percent in 2011, the data show.

EDIT

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/north-dakota-gas-flaring-doubles-pumping-co2-into-air-17212

[Nihil]

1. Dog save us from economists ....

> “Gas that is flared is not gas that they (the energy industry) are making revenue off of,”
> said the EIA report’s co-author Michael Ford, an industrial economist for the agency.
> “In that sense, you can say that it’s wasted.”

"In that sense"?




> In other words, the amount of natural gas the U.S. proposes to export to other countries
> from a single proposed LNG export terminal is being burned off and wasted forever
> on a daily basis in North Dakota.

In what "sense" does this gross environmental crime not register as "waste"?

Oh, things only count to economists if they relate to short-term financial profit don't they?

[NickB79]

2. There's only one way to rectify this

MORE PIPELINES!

"And here we see a modern, 21st century suburb in blissful, scenic Bismark, North Dakota: