Posted on 01/30/2013 1:26:37 PM PST by thackney
Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter said Wednesday the state’s rapidly increasing oil production was posing “a very difficult economic question” for drillers faced with curbing oil production or flaring natural gas produced along with the oil.
Natural gas is selling at only a fraction of the fuel content price of oil. And oil wells are being completed before natural gas pipeline connections can catch up. As a result, the Texas Railroad Commission issued 1,963 flaring permits last year, more than six times as many as it did in 2010.
...
Texas oil production has increased rapidly in the last two years because of the success of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling...
Drillers are normally permitted to flare the gas associated with oil well drilling until 10 days after the well is completed. The permits issued by the commission can extend that period for up to 180 days.
Porter noted less than half a percent of the natural gas produced in Texas is flared.
(Excerpt) Read more at bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com ...
Can someone explain “flaring” and the significance?
Not an expert, but when you drill for oil you also get natural gas and water. You separate them at the well pad, or close to it. Water you might treat, but gas you have to get rid of either by re-injecting in another well (expensive) or “flaring” it. Flaring is burning, just like a BBQ or lighter, only it’s typically a stack.
Too much gas is produced along with the oil production just to vent it through the tanks as is normally done, so they burn “flare” it so they can produce the oil from the well.
Flaring is the burning of Natural Gas at the oil well site.
It is not used to run an engine, heat a vessel or do any work.
It is just burned from a flare stack. It is just a vent that has be ignited.
If the gathering lines and other infrastructure was in place, they would move the gas to market.
But the individual gas production (at the oil well) is not cost economic to hold back the oil production to recover a little bit of gas.
To shut down the gas flow, you either have to shut down the oil well, or release the gas either in a flare or send it down a pipeline.
“...Can someone explain “flaring” and the significance?...”
After the well is finalized, high pressure gas brings the oil up with it. They run a battery of tests on the well to determine flow rates, chemical make-up, and other important technical data pertinent to the particular well. This high pressure oil/gas mixture is run thru a separator to break the oil free of the gas. The gas is then burned (flared) rather than just hazardously released unburned to the air during this testing. Once testing is completed, the well is piped up to deliver the mixed product to a permanent separation/treating facility and usually no more test flaring is done at the well site. I believe it is these test flares that they are talking about. They’re temporary and I’m not sure what the hullabaloo is all about. They keep the testing to a minimum. Yes, the gas does not bring the price that oil does, but it is still a valuable product and they don’t want to flare any more of it than they have to. The separation facilities have permanent flares that are used to flare off waste by-products from the separation process and/or to flare gas from the plant should there be a plant upset for any reason, much like a refinery. I don’t think they’re talking about those flares.
The only time we flare is if it’s H2s otherwise we just flow to the frack tanks and let it vent to the atmosphere. This is only done until we get the flowlines and meters in.
Why is it that the flared natural gas is not used to run engines on the drilling site.
What engines? Once it’s drilled the rig moves off, now we do use some casinghead gas to run Ajax motors for the pumpjacks if no electricity is available.
The use of most of the mechanical equipment is before the well can produce anything. It’s still being drilled to get to the oil & gas. By the time, we have a useable product that could be used to run equipment, the drilling is usually pretty much completed. Could this equipment be powered via of natural gas? Yep! And a lot of times we do use it, such as powering compressors, generators, etc. but the gas been separated and treated and when available. Actually, raw untreated gas is pretty nasty. It will have water, oil, solids and all kinds of crap in it, but yeah, once treated, we will use it whenever we can since we own it anyway.
Here on the Bakken the flare stacks of familiar locations lets me know where I am when it’s dark and I need to make a turn or find the location I ‘m going to.
As flat as it is here you can see the flare stacks for a great distance.
Down by the misery river (the Missouri river) you can see the flare stacks across the river but you would have to drive 40 miles to get to them
And it would have increased at an exponentially greater rate during those years if not for the burdensome regulations imposed by the Obama regime. He hates America's domestic energy companies and places roadblocks at every turn to enrich his muzzie brethren in the Mideast.
You don't get the gas until the drilling is completed.
When it gets to the surface, that gas is separated form the oil so the oil can be transported by truck, at least initially until a pipeline is built.
You have to do something with the gas, which must be processed before you liquefy it to remove the water and heavier fractions which could create problems.
Until a pipeline is run to the well site, flaring (burning off the gas at the well site) permits producing the oil at the best rate.
Shutting the well in can damage the formation and result in lower production rates over the long haul, so that is to be avoided if possible. It also means the investment is just sitting there, and not paying for itself.
Lighting the prairie, one flare stack at a time...(8^D)
You don’t get the gas until the drilling is completed.
..........
but can’t they use that gas to power nearby engines that are drilling as well as all the vehicular traffic in the neighborhood? That would really cut initial costs.
Two items, it is often miles, so building pipelines for that temporary power is less cost effective than building pipelines for a permanent gas supply to the main pipelines.
Keep in mind, you are not going to be sure about how much gas is produced until after you drill.
Secondly, wellhead gas is not really clean enough for use. It can and has been used, as some location, but there is a gas processing plant between the wells and the consumers in natural gas systems.
You would think some entrepeneur would have come up with a gaggle of mylar blimps to collect for processing this gas wasted in flaring. A taveling processing plant would be a good notion, too.
You would think some entrepeneur would have come up with a gaggle of mylar blimps to collect for processing this gas wasted in flaring. A taveling processing plant would be a good notion, too.
A thousand cubic feet of natural gas at atmospheric pressure at the wellhead is going to be worth about $2.
If it was economic to make money off the volume and location, I can assure everyone, it would already be done by the oil/gas companies.
It is a low enough volume at selected sites, that it is going to cost them money, when they are forced to shut down the flares. By waiting as long as possible, they are just helping the cash flow from the oil help prepay that cost.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.