In North Dakota, the Bakken oil shale field has created tens of thousands of jobs, a resulting housing shortage-driven boom, the lowest state unemployment in the country and sorely needed tax revenue.
But it also created something else, a problem that has nothing to do with oil. It’s all due to a process known as natural gas flaring. (See the typical flare picture below.)
Most of the oil wells also produce natural gas. When the mixture comes to the surface, the oil is pumped to the surface and stored in tanks.
The natural gas is separated from the oil. Most of the natural gas is sent through pipelines to processing plants. Some Bakken producers simply send it up a vertical pipe with an igniter at the end and burn it…
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