North Dakota's gas flaring challenge lingers on

Nearly a decade into its hydrocarbons boom, North Dakota, the US’ second-largest oil producing state, still struggles to limit natural gas flaring

Oil production continues to surge in North Dakota. The state's gas infrastructure capacity has always lagged output increases, despite a programme to control gas flaring put in place in 2014. North Dakota's challenge has been that most of its produced gas is associated gas, dependent on oil production volumes. The state's oil output, dominated by the prolific Bakken play, has skyrocketed this decade, to 1.27m barrels a day this July from an average 308,000 b/d in 2010, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Gas output has more than kept pace, with gross production sextupling to 688.9bn cubic feet in 2017 from 114bn cf in 2010. North Dakota's difficulties with gas reflec