“Production pressures are usually considerably less, and pushing upward against the pressure exerted by the weight of the fluid column in the well, so by the time you get to the surface, the well may not even flow that high on its own and you have to pump the oil out.”
I can see the oil pressure not exceeding the column pressure.
But what about natural gas?
The burning off of excess gas, brightening the nighttime satellite photos,I’ve seen in the Bakken, is impressive. Must be some high gas pressure there.
But, evidently, not enough gas in volume to warrant the necessary infrastructure -- gathering system, gas plants and pipeline -- to exploit it.
I've read, though, that a "cottage industry" is forming around means of somehow employing this gas at the wellhead -- to run generators, pumps, etc.
The amount of gas present in the oil varies from well to well.
While the pressures are no higher than the casing head pressure, the gas expands as it nears the surface, and until it can be linked to processing facilities by pipeline is burned off as a byproduct of oil production.
In the meantime, the oil is trucked out to shipment facilities and market, helping pay for the well while waiting on the pipeline hookup.
What you see in those night time pictures is the backlog in feeder pipeline construction: about 29% of the gas produced (as a byproduct of oil production) on any given day is flared, although that number is dropping as infrastructure construction catches up.