Emerson Exchange 365

I recently ran across a white paper by CERES entitled "Flaring Up:  North Dakota Flaring More Than Doubles in Two Years" .  The paper presents some pretty interesting statistics on the basis of the flaring (remote well locations and low value of the gas compared to the liquids) and the expected recovery of flared gas in the future. 

Some interesting stats included:

• In May 2012, North Dakota surpassed Alaska to become the second-largest oil producing state in the U.S. after Texas.
• Absolute volumes of flared gas have more than doubled between May 2011 and May 2013. In 2012 alone, flaring resulted in the loss of approximately $1 billion in fuel and the GHG emissions equivalent of adding one million cars to the road.
• Between May 2011 and May 2013, the amount of natural gas flared in North Dakota grew 2.5 times, from approximately 106,000 to 266,000Mcf per day, propelling the U.S. to join Russia, Nigeria and Iraq among the world’s top 10 flaring countries.
• Satellite images from NASA's “Earth at Night” project reveal that North Dakota’s natural gas flares are now visible from space, burning nearly as brightly as city lights in Minneapolis and Chicago.

The paper also outlines the outlook and also provides some recommendations for the future.  Needless to say, monetizing the natural gas is one of them.  The fracking behind the flares was also the topic of a recent National Geographic article at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/bakken-shale-oil/dobb-text.