Record U.S. Oil And Natural Gas, Falling Methane Emissions
The real methane emissions problem is not the US shale drillers. There is pretty stiff regulation in place that prevents excessive flaring and there is also an economic incentive. There is a number of NOPEC producer countries that have far more serious issues with flaring. A country like Nigeria needs the Natural Gas they flare away for power production and potentially transport. They import refined fuels for a premium. They could replace all of this with the huge amounts of gas flared. But so far there has been a lot of talk, but very little action. Thats an issue the world community should look at.
In fact, this was a central topic at the triennial World Gas Conference (WGC) held last summer, for the first time in Washington DC. For our booming shale business, more methane capture and fewer emissions are core goals.
