Natural gas flaring status in the Bakken shale play and potential remedial solutions

Abstract

The flaring of associated gas from oil wells and the excess gas from gas-processing units and oil refineries is one of the most prominent producers of greenhouse gas emissions and is an extraordinary waste of economic value given the huge volumes of flared gas. In light of the increasing awareness of its negative impact, the industry is investigating economical means to reduce the anthropogenic release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Oil production from the Bakken and Three Forks formations has significantly increased over the last ten years without commensurate augmentation of gas capture infrastructure, which consequently resulted in increased flaring of the associated gas. The North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) has set rigorous regulations to reduce flaring. However, operating companies are experiencing challenges to meet NDIC gas capturing limit of 95%, which leads to oil production being curtailed.The project’s main objectives are to evaluate technically and economically the feasibility of deploying gas re-injection in the Bakken Formation as a means to increase oil recovery, reduce flaring and meet North Dakota Industrial Commission requirements. The techno-economic assessment utilizes reservoir simulation inputs and outputs such as production rate, fluid composition, injection fluid rate and composition, and bottom hole flowing pressure to provide a detailed costs and revenue estimation of injection and production. Different gas injection schemes are investigated, surface equipment and gas injection network are modeled and optimized. It is substantiated that gas re-injection can increase oil recovery by 34%. The results of this effort suggest that gas re-injection to mitigate flaring in the Bakken can be economically achievable.