While flaring of natural gas in North Dakota hit a 22-month low in June, falling below 28 percent, that low was short-lived with flaring creeping back to approximately 29 percent in July non-confidential wells according to North Dakota Pipeline Authority figures released on Sept. 13.
Of that 29 percent, 14 percent was flared from wells that are not connected to gas gathering infrastructure. The other 15 percent was flared from wells that are connected to gas gathering systems that have inadequate infrastructure to handle the additional gas demand.
The flaring increase comes amid a month of record-breaking oil and gas production, but also a month of the highest-ever monthly increase in oil production. The good news is that gas connections are going a long way to keep pace with production increases.
Another record was broken in July with the number of wells connected to gas gathering infrastructure reaching 218, an increase of 43 wells over the 175 wells that were connected in June, an increase which Pipeline Authority Director Justin Kringstad calls “significant.”
In addition, the total number of wells in the state that are not connected to gas gathering infrastructure actually declined in July for the second straight month. That is a trend that Kringstad wants to see continue as North Dakota builds out it gas gathering infrastructure.
“The key is to make sure (that) not only are we keeping up with the pace of drilling, but getting ahead of it, and so we’ve seen that here again in July with the number of new well connections outpacing the producing wells,” Kringstad said in a Sept. 13 monthly press conference. Kringstad went on to say that he expects the pace of gas connections to continue as pipeline crews “are definitely not slowing down and gas gathering is taking place as quickly as they can safely do.”
Gas plant issues
Another factor that led to the flaring increase in July was mechanical and maintenance issues at two of Oneok’s gas processing plants. The Grasslands plant was down in the second half of June and into early July, and the Stateline I was down from June 19 to Aug. 5.
While the Grasslands plant is an older facility, the Stateline I plant is relatively new, but Kringstad said there were some equipment issues at that plant that had to be corrected. He said any major facility such as a gas plant or a refinery will have to go through maintenance and upgrades at certain times.
However, Kringstad said Oneok’s gas plants in western North Dakota are essentially tied together via pipelines, which gives the company the ability to shuffle gas volumes as needed when a plant is undergoing maintenance. He added that there is even some pipeline connectivity between competing gas processors.
Issues with existing infrastructure
Another contributing factor in the flaring issue is that the older existing gas infrastructure simply doesn’t have the capacity to handle the demands of new gas production coming online.
Kringstad said there are three primary issues associated with the older gathering infrastructure. First, he said, the pipelines are undersized for the current demand, and as more wells are added to an older gathering system, the system simply can’t handle the load. The solution, he said, is to run a new, secondary pipe alongside the original to up the capacity.
The second issue, Kringstad said, is insufficient compression. As new high-pressure Bakken and Three Forks wells are connected to a gathering system, they have a tendency to kick off the older, lower pressure wells causing older wells to be flared. The solution to that issue is increasing the compression to handle higher pressures.
However, he said, adding compression is not necessarily a simple matter because specialized equipment has to be added to existing systems. He added that there can be long lead times in getting the specialized equipment built and installed.
The third issue Kringstad identified is with natural gas liquids that settle out and pool in low areas of pipelines, lowering the gas transmission capacity. In those cases, he said, pipeline operators have to run pigs through the pipe to “squeegee” the liquids out “so they can maximize every inch of that pipe.”
