Most likely, the angle of attack will bee flaring of wellhead gas. Wellhead Gas is the raw gas dissolved in oil as it is produced, or which comes directly from the well, having come out of solution on the way out of the well. This Gas contains Methane, but also Ethane, Propane, Butane (Iso and Normal) and a host of more complex volatile aromatic compounds, also hydrocarbons. Carbon Dioxide,Argon, and Helium can be included along with other impurities.
This gas is processed where takeaway capacity and processing facilities are available to produce Natural Gas (predominantly methane) and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) like Ethane, Propane, Isobutane and Normal Butane, and a host of other hydrocarbons which are feedstocks for the chemical industry.
The numbers which will be harped on, of course, are the cubic feet of wellhead Gas flared.
In North Dakota, for instance, in 2010 there were 70 Billion cubic feet of Natural Gas produced. By 2020, as the Bakken boom progressed, that had increased to 718 billion cubic feet of wellhead Gas.
With that boom, however, takeaway (pipeline) and processing capacity increased also.
A greater percentage of that valuable product is being captured than ever. Keep in mind that the Wellhead Gas in North Dakota is almost all a byproduct of oil production, and not the primary resource sought.
From
https://www.energyindepth.org/north-dakota-exceeds-ambitious-flaring-reduction-targets-in-2021/
You can also see on the graphs, the effect of COVID on the industry (overall production) and the downstream use of Natural Gas, resulting in an increase in flaring because the demand was down and storage capacity reduced as a result. To compensate for the permanent reduction in oil production due to the plugging and abandonment of stripper wells, (about 1.5 million BOPD, nationally), the industry has since increased production, generally in areas where more gas gathering infrastructure is not only economically feasible but available to tie in, predominantly developmental drilling in the Bakken/Three Forks 'fairway'. Pre-existing infrastructure along the pad complexes facilitates tie-in to that network, and the siting of new pads is done with that in mind.
As a result, the percentage of wellhead gas flared has been reduced to well below 10% as drilling has slowed and infrastructure has caught up.
From:
https://jpt.spe.org/high-rates-of-routine-flaring-in-north-dakota-are-not-so-routine-anymore
Lack of gas processing and pipeline capacity have long been cited as the chief drivers behind North Dakota’s high flaring rates and periods of noncompliance with state goals. However, gas processing capacity in the state has jumped from 1 Bcf/D in 2013 to 3.4 Bcf/D in 2020 and is on track to top 4 Bcf/D by the end of this year, according to the NDIC.
Note that in any developing play, such as the Permian Basin, the drilling and production will initially outstrip the takeaway and processing capacity for wellhead gas, and as a result flaring (as the only safe means of disposal, lacking safe means of transport) will increase until the infrastructure gets built out.
Stopping that build out will only exacerbate the problem and waste tremendous energy, not solve it and permit that energy and chemical feed stocks to be utilized.
