Our industry is highly regulated. These regulations ensure we operate in a safe, responsible manner to protect our employees, communities where we operate and the environment. However, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has proposed a new rule to limit natural gas venting and flaring that could have the unintended effects of reducing production in our operating areas, thus preventing associated state revenues.
Here are a few things to know about venting and flaring:
- Flaring is the practice of safely burning off excess gases that cannot be recovered for export or use as a fuel, and would otherwise pose a hazard.
- Across all types of wells and reservoirs in the U.S., less than 1% of natural gas is flared.
- Our industry is already proactively working to reduce flaring through natural gas gathering and processing infrastructure in states like North Dakota.
- Small amounts of venting and flaring are necessary to safely operate a facility.
- If implemented, the proposed rule would add disproportionate costs to our industry’s production, causing operators to shut in wells that would otherwise generate income for states.
- The proposed changes further promise negative impacts to new and existing investments in projects on federal lands, including tribal lands that would benefit from production revenues.
To learn more about how these proposed rules could impact our operations, visit our North Dakota and New Mexico pages.
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