Posted on 07/01/2013 5:22:44 AM PDT by thackney
New legislation offers North Dakota oil drillers tax breaks beginning Monday if they stop burning and wasting natural gas.
The Republican-sponsored bills passed the Legislature this year. They offer oil companies tax incentives for capturing and using the byproduct of the state’s booming crude production.
(Excerpt) Read more at fuelfix.com ...
How?
Nevermind ... flaring is burnoff to reduce pressure, right ?
ND natural gas gathering system maturing
http://www.prairiebizmag.com/event/article/id/14828/
June 03, 2013
In one month, North Dakota wastes a resource capable of heating about 80,000 homes for one year.
But new processing plants and pipelines to keep natural gas from being flared have recently come online or will be completed soon. That could make 2013 the year North Dakota starts to turn that around, says Justin Kringstad, director of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority.
...
In March, the state flared about 7.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas, or 29 percent of the state’s output, according to the Department of Mineral Resources. North Dakota flared a historical high of 36 percent of its natural gas output in September 2011.
...
One significant milestone this spring was the completion of ONEOK’s Stateline II natural gas processing plant near Williston, which can process 100 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. It’s the third natural gas processing facility the Oklahoma-based company has completed in the Williston Basin since late 2011.
Later this year, Hess Corp. will complete a major expansion of the Tioga Gas Plant, which will increase capacity from 115 million cubic feet per day to 250 million cubic feet per day. The plant produces propane, butane and natural gas.
With the addition of other plants that are expanding or under construction, North Dakota will have the capacity to process nearly 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by the end of 2013 and more than 1.4 billion cubic feet per day by the end of 2015, according to Kringstad’s numbers.
That means North Dakota would have enough processing capacity for all the gas produced, but the ongoing challenge is having enough gathering lines to transport the natural gas, Kringstad said....
Keep in mind, AP, not a great understanding of the knowledge, calls all in the business “drillers”.
The linked article I included helps explain, it is the flaring of gas during the production of oil, since not enough infrastructure is in place to capture the gas, yet.
North Dakota House Bill 1134
http://legiscan.com/ND/bill/1134/2013
AN ACT to create and enact sections 57-51-02.6 and 57-51.1-02.1 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to oil and gas gross production tax exemption for natural gas and an oil extraction tax exemption for liquids produced from natural gas extracted to encourage use of gas that might otherwise be flared; to amend and reenact sections 38-08-06.4 and 57-39.2-04.5 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to flaring restrictions for natural gas and sales tax exemption for property used to process natural gas to encourage use of gas that might otherwise be flared; and to provide an effective date.
Signed by Governor 04/26/2013
Can NG supplant coal as an energy source?
Natural Gas is "capable" of becoming more popular for producing electrical energy, if that is your question.
But for a electrical power producer, it only comes down to economics, which fuel is the cheapest to use. That gets distorted somewhat as cheapest includes cost for EPA regulations.
SHORT-TERM ENERGY OUTLOOK, ELECTRICITY
http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/report/electricity.cfm
They flare it off at the well head. There is no means to collect NG.
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