operators, state agencies make moves to limit flaring in oil-rich Permian Basin

摘要

The crude crash price and subsequent shut-ins across the Permian Basin in the second quarter of 2020 allowed multiple producers to reduce their associated gas flaring volumes, prompting state officials in Texas and New Mexico to strike while the iron was hot and introduce rules to curb the practice permanently. The Texas Railroad Commission, the state agency charged with regulating oil and natural gas production, introduced a revision to Rule 32 Data Sheet intended to limit the exemptions producers use to flare volumes of associated gas. The gas is a by-product produced by operators targeting oil-rich zones in plays such as the Permian and Eagle Ford Shale. Rather than capturing, processing and sending the gas to market, it has been simpler to flare, or burn off, the fuel at the wellhead.