Industry Flaring in Focus: A Close Look at Natural Gas Flaring in North Dakota

The document analyzes natural gas flaring in the Bakken formation of North Dakota, noting that in 2013, 32% of all produced gas was flared. It disputes the claim that slow federal permitting for pipelines is the primary driver of flaring, providing data that 72% of 2013 flaring occurred on private or state-owned land and 57% of statewide flaring came from wells already connected to gathering pipelines. The author argues that flaring is instead caused by insufficient infrastructure capacity, lack of front-end planning, and investment gaps, and opposes HR 4293, which would allow the Secretary of Interior to bypass the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process for pipeline and compressor station permits on federal lands.

• In 2013, the oil and gas industry flared 32% of all gas produced in the Bakken formation.
• Data indicates that the majority of flaring in 2013 (72%) took place at wells on state-owned or private land, and the flaring rate on Federal public lands is not higher than on private or state land.
• A significant portion of flaring occurs despite existing infrastructure, with 57% of statewide flaring originating from wells already connected to natural gas gathering pipelines.
• The document attributes high flaring levels from connected wells to insufficient gathering and processing infrastructure, such as undersized pipelines or inadequate compression, as well as failures in commercial agreements between production and midstream companies.
• The author opposes HR 4293 (The Natural Gas Gathering Enhancement Act), which proposes creating categorical exclusions and bypassing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process for permitting on federal lands, arguing that such measures do not address the root causes of flaring.

APA

Banks, J., & Feldman, L. (2014). Industry Flaring in Focus: A Close Look at Natural Gas Flaring in North Dakota. Clean Air Task Force. https://www.catf.us/2014/06/flaring-in-focus-a-close-look-at-natural-gas-flaring-in-north-dakota/

Chicago

Banks, Jonathan, and Lesley Feldman. Industry Flaring in Focus: A Close Look at Natural Gas Flaring in North Dakota. Clean Air Task Force, 2014. https://www.catf.us/2014/06/flaring-in-focus-a-close-look-at-natural-gas-flaring-in-north-dakota/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Banks |first1=Jonathan |last2=Feldman |first2=Lesley |title=Industry Flaring in Focus: A Close Look at Natural Gas Flaring in North Dakota |publisher=Clean Air Task Force |date=26 June 2014 |url=https://www.catf.us/2014/06/flaring-in-focus-a-close-look-at-natural-gas-flaring-in-north-dakota/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{banks2014industry, author = {Banks, Jonathan and Feldman, Lesley}, title = {{Industry Flaring in Focus: A Close Look at Natural Gas Flaring in North Dakota}}, institution = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2014}, month = jun, url = {https://www.catf.us/2014/06/flaring-in-focus-a-close-look-at-natural-gas-flaring-in-north-dakota/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }