U.S. Shale Oil Boom Comes at Expense of Wasted Natural Gas, Increased Carbon Dioxide
Up in Flames materials
From the executive summary
In a new investigation of flaring of natural gas in the nation’s two most prolific shale oil formations, North Dakota’s Bakken Shale and Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale, Earthworks found that North Dakota oil companies have flared more than $854 million of natural gas since 2010, and state officials do not track how much money companies owe in taxes for the gas. The report found that Texas does not tax flared gas at all, pointing to the need for more stringent measures to reduce flaring in both formations and raising questions about whether North Dakota officials will enforce recently issued regulations to control flaring.
SkyTruth Global Flaring Map
SkyTruth‘s global flaring map compiles nightly infrared data from a NOAA satellite and filters it to display gas flares associated with oil and gas production.
The two frames below focus on the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale plays. The entire interactive tool is updated nightly to show flaring in the rest of the United States and around the world. For more on the tool, visit SkyTruth’s blog on the subject.
