Bet you were surprised by the date - yes, the Texas RRC did act to eliminate gas flaring, 70 years ago. Since the first wells were brought in way before 1930, a lot of gas went up in smoke (or vent) before then. And the journey to cut flaring was a long one. Bottom line, the simplest solution is to not approve a drilling permit without the gas handling setup in place. But since that drives up costs for wells that end up not being worth it, it wasn't popular. Reading this will also provide some enlightenment as to why the Commission uses certain terms for reporting production, and finally answer that burning question "why is casinghead gas called casinghead gas?"
Prindle Article from1981 History of Texas Elimination of Flaring 1930 1949
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Excellent article. Of course, a significant difference between the old discoveries and the modern PB is the absolute lack of takeaway facilities in the beginning and the simply inadequate facilities currently; the poor value of the gas at the wellhead being virtually equal. Thus, in my estimation, to a large extent this becomes a timing issue as facilities are built or do not continue to be built due to poor midstream economics. Adding oil production with associated gas production as existing gas production declines would prevent much flaring and flatten the oil output curve, helping to bolster the price of both commodities. Perhaps a dumb campaign slogan for a RRC seat would be appropriate, "Drill to Fill".
Please correct me if I am in error but the right of capture arguments are minimal in functionally zero perm LTO formations so slower exploitation is not a correlative rights issue; it is an economic or greed issue. While drilling commitments may require rapid exploitation, surely fiduciary issues would override fast development and waste of resources. That one is for the attorneys to take up and educate a fool here.
About 25 years ago I became fascinated with oilfield history and two books came to mind today. I shall begin rereads tomorrow and make additional comments on the topic soon. They involve history in West Virginia and Kansas, both of which were pioneering gas producing states that immediately utilized their gas resources. In the 1840s, gas was used to produce salt from brine in WV and in the 1870s to 1880s gas was used for heating and then lighting in KS. Comparing these regions to West Texas is apples to oranges but the earlier views of the gas as something to be monetized and not wasted was immediate and organic. Some of the KS wells were monsters by the way.
Looking forward to these posts. My belief is similar to that of my pioneer grandmas - waste not, want not. My parents reused plastic bags and aluminum foil. Every molecule matters. We have technical talent that could put a barrel of oil back together if someone wanted to, and that can split the bonds between atoms that are almost identical. You can't tell me this isn't a solvable problem. But you can tell me it's an issue of pulling together a systems approach that focuses on the end result instead of creating fighting business units trying to make points off each other. Not as easy as coming up with ad copy for the latest magical box that fixes one problem and creates 2 more.
Thanks for this, abk. I put a look see on the Home Page.
Flaring natural gas in the greatest industrialized nation the world has ever known is an abomination. It is an indication of how screwed up our society has become that anyone would allow it, much less accept it. I've never flared in over 50 years of operations. It was always my money and I did not want to waste a nickel of it. Its wrong for a host of reasons. In Texas it is flat against the law; its there in our Constitution, in black and white.
As I have said, I do not intend to let people forget who allowed it, from regulators on down to CEO's who made tens of millions of dollars in annual, reserve based compensations by booking BOE's, borrowing money against those BOE's, then wasting the E in BOE up a flare stack. I am frankly unclear how those fellas sleep at night.