Hess’ Bakken gas-gathering efforts bear fruit

The company reports a remarkable shift in its oil/gas mix in the North Dakota shale play

The carbon footprint of US shale oil, particularly due to fugitive methane from lack of gas-gathering capacity, has become a hot-button topic. But it appears the efforts of US independent Hess in the Bakken shale over the past 12 months have made a significant difference to volumes of gas it is collecting from its oil output. New president Joe Biden and the environmental wing of his Democratic party have methane emissions from shale drilling firmly in their sights. Hess’ numbers should therefore be good news for the US unconventional production industry as a while. Overall, the firm’s Bakken production in Q4 2020 went up by almost 9pc from the same period in 2019, from 174,000bl/d oe to 189,