In 2020 I wrote a piece on how the Bakken oil production was peaking and what this would mean for the asset retirement obligations for the Bakken. In that piece I pointed out another aspect of the Bakken that was getting little attention. More than a decade after the Bakken boom started, North Dakota was flaring 23 percent of the methane gas produced via fracking — making a mockery of the state’s flaring regulations. Harold Hamm, Bloomberg and many others talked a lot about technological innovation while the reality in the Bakken of North Dakota was that the industry was wasting almost a quarter of the natural gas being produced. For comparison, the target the European Union is currently using for its methane is 0.2%. Also for comparison, Iraq is flaring around 25% now.
Wow, i had no idea such a huge share was flared. That's so wasteful! Having the EU target there for context is v helpful to show it's not normal