Reuters reports that the amount of natural gas that US drillers deliberately burned or released has increased for the third year in a row. In 2019, the volume of flared and vented gas from America’s two largest oil fields added up to 493.2 Bcf, up 5% from the national total in 2018.
Flaring is the deliberate burning of gas, usually in response to a lack of pipelines necessary to move the gas to the market, or when prices are too low to make transporting the gas worthwhile, according to Reuters.
The practice is not only wasteful, but bad for the environment. Reuters reports that venting also releases large amounts of unburned methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Despite regulations to limit flaring, the United State’s largest oil producers consistently miss monthly gas capture targets.
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