North Dakota’s Mineral Resources director said he would like to tighten up the rules on natural gas capture – so that the state’s stated goal of 91 percent capture can be met by November first.
Lynn Helms will be drafting some revisions to the Industrial Commission’s policy, to be presented to the Commission in September. Helms told the Commission this is important – because of what has happened to the oil industry in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Oil production is down because demand is down.
"We will see a strong signal that gas capture is all dealt with," Helms said. "It's going to be a false positive, because of the amount of shut-in production that we have."
Helms said that is going to result in an "enormous surplus" of gas capture capacity.
"That's temporary," Helms said. "It doesn't signal that we can take our eyes off the ball."
Helms said in February, before oil prices dropped, the state came close to 88 percent gas capture.