North Dakota above goal for captured gas
Despite recent declines, the amount of gas captured rather than flared off in North Dakota was higher than a goal set one year ago, state data published November 16 show.
The so-called Director’s Cut, a monthly report from the North Dakota department of mineral resources, showed a 94% gas capture rate for September, the last full month for which the state published data. The state set a gas capture goal of 74% for October 2014 and 91% for November 2020.
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September production averaged 3bn ft3/d, short of the record of 3.1bn ft3/d on average set in November 2019. Of that, 2.8bn ft3/d was listed as captured gas. The state set a record for gas captured at 2.9bn ft3/d in March 2020.
The government reported the state-wide gas flared volume declined from August to September.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) earlier this month unveiled a sweeping proposal meant to cut methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.
Key measures of the plan range from monitoring and eliminating vented gas to performance standards for various upstream operations. The Interior Department, which manages oil and gas operations on public lands and in federal waters, said it aimed to disincentivise flaring of associated gas by proposing that operators pay royalties to the federal government for vented or flared gas.
Critics of the measure said the royalties could lead to even higher prices for commodities, which have been at or near multi-year highs for several weeks. The EPA, however, said it analysed the potential impact the proposed rule would have on oil and natural gas prices from 2023 to 2035 and found it would be “pennies per barrel of oil or thousand cubic feet of gas.”