The use of natural gas is something that has increased over the years supplying nearly one-fourth of all of the energy used in the U.S. Even though it is being used more widely, some areas are still producing it more than what can be marketed. The Bakken shale, more specifically North Dakota, is an area that is currently going through this issue. You’re going to see the term “nonmarketed” natural gas throughout this blog, so what does it mean? Well, nonmarketed gas is simply gas that is not sold to production for individual, industry, or company use.
If you were to search information about North Dakota when it comes to oil and gas, you will most likely find a lot about crude oil production. The reason for this is because North Dakota is one of the largest sources of crude oil in the United States. But it is rare that only oil is produced in the fields because natural gas and other hydrocarbons often come with it as well. Just from 2010 to 2014, oil production has risen from 230,000 barrels per day to more than 1,130,000 barrels per day. The rapid growth of oil production has of course resulted in the rapid growth of gas as well, however only two-thirds of it is actually being used or sold.
Below, you can see a chart that illustrates the production of oil and gas in the region from 2010 to 2014 and what it was used for.
Just by analyzing the chart, you can see the amount of nonmarketed gas has nearly doubled since 2011.
Where does the unmarketed gas go?
I am sure you are wondering where the nonmarketed gas or gas that is not being used ends up. In reference to the chart pictured above, you will see that the gas that is not being used or sold is being flared. Flaring is when nonmarketed gas is burned and disposed of through releasing emissions into the atmosphere. The natural gas that is flared in the Bakken shale of North Dakota makes up 22 percent of the total gas flared in the United States. Just in 2012, North Dakota’s flared natural gas was responsible for 4.5 million metric tons of CO2 being release into the atmosphere. In the Bakken shale, there is so much flaring occurring, that the flames from these flares can even be seen from space! Do you see all of those little white dots…those are all of the flares that can be seen from the North Dakota region.
How does this happen? Why is the natural gas not being used?
The reasoning behind all the flaring of the gas is not because North Dakota just simply chooses to waste it. Unfortunately, they do not have the interstate pipelines to bring the natural gas to market. The additions that have been made to the state’s pipeline capacity and processing facilities have been outpaced by the production growth. North Dakota has just simply run out of places to store all of the natural gas that is being produced.
So now what? What can be done to avoid this?
North Dakota is in the process of fighting to reduce their volume amount of nonmarketed natural gas. In fact, they are aiming to reduce their percentage of nonmarketed natural gas to 10 percent by 2020. They have recently completed projects and future goals in place such as pipelines, plants, General Electric’s CNG, and simply individual or industrial usage.
- Pipelines
- August 2012: pipeline connecting processing plants in NW North Dakota to the Northern Border Pipeline. And in May 2013, the Stateline II natural gas processing plant also connected to this pipeline.
- June 2013: Tioga Lateral pipeline authorized to transport .13 Bcfd of natural gas to a connection with Alliance Pipeline from a processing plant in Tioga, North Dakota. Then Alliance pipeline will be able to flow this gas to Chicago, Illinois.
- 2017: Expected completion of a 375-mile pipeline to send .4 Bcfd of natural gas to Minnesota.
- Plants
- Two large fertilizer plants that would use half the volume on the unmarketed natural gas flared. These plants would each need .08 Bcfd on natural gas as a feedstock to produce nitrogen.
- January 2012: completion of .10 Bcfd Garden Creek processing plant near Williston, North Dakota.
- General ElectricApplication of General Electric’s system known as CNG In A Box that uses a “compact compression-and-cooling station to convert natural gas into a compressed natural gas (CNG), which can serve as fuel for vehicles and equipment.” (eia.gov)
- Individual and Industrial usage
- A way that we can help reduce the amount of nonmarketed natural gas, is to simply increase the consumption within the state itself. We can increase the consumption in commercial, residential, industrial, and in the transportation sector.
Non-marketed natural gas in the Bakken Shale is something that is a known issue but has not been ignored. As a percentage of North Dakota’s total gas production, nonmarketed natural gas has decreased to 33 percent in 2013 from 37 percent in 2011. North Dakota has already began taking steps to reduce the amount of gas being flared and they are continuing to develop ways to turn unmarketed into marketed natural gas.
At CROFT, we challenge ourselves to make continuous improvements to our equipment and stay one step ahead of the industry trends/issues. We have developed a full product line that can process natural gas with the benefit of no emissions.
Check out the CROFT product line and take a look at the systems we engineer, lease, and sell for processing natural gas!
https://www.geoilandgas.com/drilling/offshore-drilling/cng-box-system
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/north-dakota-gas-flaring-doubles-pumping-co2-into-air-17212
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=15511
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/stats/statisticsvw.asp
http://www.aga.org/about-natural-gas
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/gas-flaring-is-wasting-fuel-and-fueling-climate-change-15163
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=18451
https://rfn.caliberplanning.com/index.php?content=faq§ion=flaring
