State mineral resources director Lynn Helms says it appears to him that the oil industry is taking the issue of reducing natural gas flaring seriously.
Last year, flaring was as high as 36 percent.
Helms says last year at this time, Gov. Jack Dalrymple told the industry that it had to fix this.
"Here we are, a year later, with rules in place, an order in place and gas capture plans in place,"" said Helms. "We were at 36 percent last year. Now we're at 26 percent."
The rule says flaring must be cut to 26 percent by October first – and 25 percent by January first. Helms says if wells are not connected to gas gathering systems by that time, they would have to ratchet-back production from those wells until they are connected. He says they could be choked-back to 100 to 200 barrels a day. But Helms says the state could take further action.
"We're going to go back and audit November, December and January," Helms said. "If we don't see a diligent effort to increase gas capture, we could penalize an operator $12,500 a day for periods where it looks like the operator isn't making an effort to get some wellsite capture, or connect to a gathering system, or isn't letting the Industrial Commission know what the problems are."
Some oil well operators are looking for ways to use natural gas at the well site – because connecting to a gas gathering system may be impossible – or too expensive. Helms says he knows this could be a solution for a number of operators. And he says he recently met with an operator who faces that kind of challenge.
"They've got 15 wellsite capture units on order," said Helms. "That's close to a $30 million investment there, which would drill 3 or 4 Bakken wells."
