BISMARCK, N.D., Oct. 16 (UPI) -- State wide, more of the natural gas associated with shale deposits in North Dakota has been captured, a state energy director said.
North Dakota oil production is setting routine state records, with most of the output coming from the Bakken shale oil area. Gas associated with the oil had been burned off, or flared, because of a lack of infrastructure to capture it.
Lynn Helms, director of the North Dakota Industrial Commission, said in a monthly report flaring was decreasing across the state.
"The August capture percentage was 73 percent with increased daily volume of gas flared from July to August of 23.5 million cubic feet per day," his Wednesday report read. "The historical high flared percent was 36 percent in September, 2011."
North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple in May announced startup company North Dakota LNG will build a gas processing plant in Tioga, the first of its kind for the state, to reduce flaring.
This week, Badlands NGL, LLC announced plans to build a $4 billion processing plants to convert ethane gas taken from shale deposits in the state into polyethylene, which is used in the plastics industry.
