Published: October 21, 2013

Justin J. Kringstad, Director

North Dakota Pipeline Authority

Office: 701.220.6227

www.northdakotapipelines.com

NORTH DAKOTA NATURAL GAS

A DETAILED LOOK AT NATURAL GAS GATHERING
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NORTH DAKOTA 

NATURAL GAS

A DETAILED LOOK AT NATURAL 

GAS GATHERING

This report is designed to be a factual look at natural gas gathering, 

processing, and flaring in North Dakota. 

The Bakken – Three Forks Formations

The Bakken/Three Forks (Bakken) is the largest oil field (in square 

miles) in North America. It underlies approximately 15,000+ square 

miles of North Dakota. The formation has been known about by 

geologists for decades, but it wasn’t until 2006 when the use of 

horizontal drilling combined with hydraulic fracturing that the Bakken 

was considered to be an economic play.

The Bakken formation produces both crude oil and associated natural 

gas. Oil is the primary energy resource contained in Bakken wells and 

is the principal economic driver for energy producing companies.

Natural Gas Flaring

Flaring occurs when natural gas is burned on location due to a lack of 

gathering pipeline infrastructure or economic alternatives. Flaring of 

natural gas is a much safer and more environmentally friendly method 

of handling the natural gas than simply venting into the atmosphere. By 

flaring the gas, it converts the methane to carbon dioxide (CO2) which 

has 20-25 times less impact on greenhouse gas emissions.

A gas gathering pipeline and processing plant are the conventional

means to condition the natural gas for retail use. An economic analysis 

must be done to determine if it is even feasible to connect a well to an 

FLARING 

REGULATION 

In an effort to conserve this 

resource and protect against 

waste, the Industrial 

Commission Oil and Gas 

Division, under the authority 

granted in section 38-08-04 

of the North Dakota Century 

Code, implements and 

enforces rules and 

regulations to limit the 

production of oil produced 

from wells that are not yet 

connected to a gasgathering system.

PRIMARY 

CHALLENGES 

• Size of resource

• Young age of 

development

• Harsh winter 

conditions

• Resource potential 

still being explored
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existing pipeline or perhaps to build a new pipeline into an area of ongoing development. Even after the 

oil and gas well has been connected to a gas-gathering pipeline and processing facility, there are still 

times when the well may flare intermittently, generally due to excessive line pressures or mechanical 

issues.

Detailed Challenges to Reducing North Dakota Flaring

 Upfront Planning/Coordination

 Obtaining Easements

 Understanding Bakken Gas Quality 

 Understanding Production Potential

 Properly Sizing New Gas Gathering Pipelines

 Enhancing Existing Gathering Pipelines

 Sufficient Gas Processing Capacity (Timing and Location Critical)

 Adequate Interstate Pipeline Capacity

 Ramping Up Flaring Alternatives (Short & Long Term)

Understanding Bakken Natural Gas Quality

A common misconception regarding natural gas flaring in North Dakota is the belief that natural gas 

prices are currently too low in the United States to justify new gathering and processing infrastructure. 

This belief is based on the existing dry natural gas markets (methane) and could not be any further 

from the current reality in North Dakota. In actuality, the value of Bakken natural gas, including the

natural gas liquids (NGLs), makes it very economically attractive to construct the required infrastructure 

to capture the resource. 

Natural gas produced from the Bakken is very rich in NGLs (Figure 1). One thousand cubic feet (MCF) 

of raw natural gas from a Bakken well may contain around eight to twelve gallons of NGLs. These 

NGLs (ethane, propane, butane, and natural gasoline) are very valuable with the current market value 

of raw natural gas from the Bakken around $6.50-$8.00 per MCF. 
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FIGURE 1

North Dakota Natural Gas Production

Natural gas production has been rising over the last number of years with continued oil development of 

the Bakken. Along with the rise in production, the sale of natural gas from North Dakota has also 

continued to increase (Figure 2).

FIGURE 2
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Figure 3 is a chart of recent historical natural gas production and a forecast of two future production 

scenarios. The two cases represent different drilling assumptions during the forecasted period.

FIGURE 3

Understanding the Flaring Challenge

During the month of August 2013, there were 4,659 non-confidential wells flaring natural gas in North 

Dakota. The volume of natural gas flared from these wells varies from less than 1 MCFD to more than 

2,500 MCFD. Figure 4 shows the distribution of wells flaring and their associated impact on the total 

percentage of gas flared in August 2013. It is quickly seen that the number of wells flaring is skewed 

towards the low flaring wells, while the largest volumes of gas flaring are associated with few, but larger 

flaring wells. As shown in Figure 4, even if the over 2,200 wells flaring 10 MCFD or less were no longer 

flaring, the State’s overall flaring percentage would only be reduced by 0.81%. 
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FIGURE 4

The Pipeline Authority assigns two major categories to wells with natural gas flaring in North Dakota 

(Figure 5). The first and most obvious is the flaring of natural gas due to a lack of pipeline infrastructure. 

The second, and currently the largest in terms of volume, is the flaring of natural gas due to challenges 

on existing natural gas infrastructure (e.g. pipelines, compressors, processing equipment). The pie 

chart in Figure 5 provides a breakdown of the disposition of natural gas production in August 2013.

It should be noted that simply connecting a well to a gas gathering system may not completely 

extinguish the flare if the pipeline system cannot handle all of the new production. In this case, the 

well’s flared volume would shift to the “existing infrastructure” category until expansion of the pipeline 

system is adequate to eliminate the need for flaring at the well. As more wells are connected to gas 

gathering systems, the share of gas flared on “existing infrastructure” versus “non-connected” will 

continue to grow.
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FIGURE 5

Faster Well Connections: Capturing the 13%

In August 2013, 13% of the natural gas was flared due to a lack of a pipeline connection. Thus, a key 

metric to understand is how quickly new wells are being connected to pipeline/processing facilities. 

Figure 6 is a chart indicating the number of new wells being drilled in each given month (red) and the 

number of wells being connected to gas gathering facilities (black). In order to keep from falling behind 

on well connections, the industry must have at least as many new wells connected as new producing 

wells. The overall trend in this matter is very positive, with recent months indicating that the gas 

gathering pace is exceeding the pace of drilling. Sustaining or exceeding the current gas gathering 

pace is vital for the purpose of reducing the back log of wells that have been flaring for a longer period 

of time (Figure 7).

Western North Dakota has experienced a rapid build out of pipeline infrastructure over the past five 

years. In 2012 alone, over 2,400 miles of pipelines were placed into service, with the majority being 

installed for natural gas infrastructure. It is difficult to predict how many additional miles of new natural 

gas gathering pipelines will be necessary to fully develop the Bakken region, but the current pace of 

installation is not showing any sign of slowing down and is expected to continue for many more years.
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FIGURE 6

FIGURE 7

In Figure 7, two sets of data are plotted to show how many wells have the capabilities to sell or use 

natural gas (black), and how many are still waiting for a pipeline or sales option (red). As the gas 
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gathering infrastructure catches up, the number of wells without gas sales will peak and begin to 

decline.

FIGURE 8 – *DATA THROUGH AUGUST 2013

Figure 8 is a breakdown of the number of new wells that began production in a given year and how 

many of those wells have been connected to gas sales facilities. 
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FIGURE 9 – *DATA THROUGH AUGUST 2013

Figure 9 tells the story of where new gas gathering infrastructure is being focused. The black bars are 

indicating the number of wells connected to gas gathering in 2013, broken down by when the well first 

began production. It is clear that the gas gathering industry is focused on connecting new producing 

wells in order to capture the well at its highest producing time period. 

Enhancing Existing Infrastructure: Capturing the 16%

In August 2013, 16% of North Dakota’s natural gas was flared from wells that were connected to one of 

the gas sales facilities. This situation presents itself for a number of different reasons. A few of the key 

situations are:

o Figure 10: Need for additional pipeline compression. 
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 Historic, lower pressure wells (top of Figure 10) are connected and selling their 

gas on a conventional gathering/processing system. A new, high pressure well 

begins producing and is placed on the same pipeline network as the older, lower 

pressure wells. The older wells do not operate at a pressure necessary to 

overcome the new line pressure and begin to flare. Additional pipeline 

compression may be necessary to correct this situation.

o Figure 11: Need to “loop’ existing pipeline systems.

 Some pipeline systems in North Dakota are simply not large enough to handle 

the high volume of gas production due to improving completion techniques and 

increased density drilling. Placing a second pipeline, or looping, into service may 

be required to handle the long term needs of that particular pipeline segment. 

o Figure 12: Frequent pigging of existing pipelines

 As described earlier, Bakken natural gas is very rich in NGLs. These liquids have 

the tendency to precipitate in the pipeline system and pool at the bottom of the 

pipeline system, particularly in cooler weather and/or lower elevation segments. 

This layer of natural gas liquids chokes the pipeline of valuable space that could 

be used for moving natural gas. Gathering pipeline operators are continually 

working on pigging operations to clear, or “squeegee”, the pipelines of these 

liquids.

FIGURE 10
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FIGURE 11

FIGURE 12
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Additional Gas Processing Capacity

North Dakota currently has twenty natural gas processing/conditioning plants operating, with the 

capability to process roughly 1,000 MMCFD. Six new or expanded plants are expected in the next 

several years and will add up to roughly 450 MMCFD of processing capacity (Figures 13 & 14). A 

detailed breakdown of the existing and proposed facilities, as well as maps, can be found on the 

Pipeline Authority website.

FIGURE 13
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FIGURE 14

Interstate Pipeline Capacity

North Dakota natural gas has three primary transmission pipeline options (Figure 15), WBI 

Transmission, Northern Border, and Alliance pipelines. The remaining natural gas transmission 

pipelines in the state connect to one of these three systems. WBI Transmission’s current role is a 

regional transporter of natural gas, while Northern Border and Alliance both originate in Canada, pick 

up North Dakota natural gas at various points, and move those volumes to midcontinent consumers. A 

2012 study commissioned by the Pipeline Authority revealed that competition for space on the Alliance 

and Northern Border would intensify as natural gas production levels in the region increase. One 

industry response to this challenge was the recent proposal by WBI Transmission to construct a new 

natural gas transmission pipeline to eastern North Dakota and/or western Minnesota. 

It should be noted that making a quantitative link between current flaring and interstate pipeline 

capacity is difficult; but nonetheless, ensuring North Dakota natural gas has an adequate means of 

moving to market over the long term is crucial.
Copyrighted page(s) removed. Copyrighted 

material is not available in Regulations.gov since 

it may not be reproduced without consent of the 

copyright holder. 

Removed pages can be viewed at the USEPA 

Docket Center, Public Reading Room. 

Address: 1301 Constitution Ave, NW 

Room 3334 

Washington, DC 20004 

Telephone: 202-566-1744 

Email: docket-customerservice@epa.gov
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Wellhead Recovery Estimates

In an attempt to take a holistic view of petroleum production and flaring in North Dakota, a simple 

breakdown of the total economics and energy supply are shown in Figure 16. The charts show that in 

August 2013, only 2.7% of the total economic value and 7.2% of the total energy content being 

produced by North Dakota wells were lost due to flaring. These relatively low amounts of loss are due 

to the Bakken being primarily an oil producing region. It is also important to note that while the 

percentages are low in both categories, there is still a tremendous amount of value in the flared natural 

gas, thus the high level of investment and gathering activity seen in this report.

FIGURE 16 – ASSUMES $8.00/MCF WELLHEAD GAS AND $97.18/BBL OIL
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United States Natural Gas Flaring

As North Dakota continues to grow and mature into one of the top petroleum producing regions in the 

country, it is important to look at how significant growth has impacted natural gas flaring in other areas 

of the United States. As a whole, the United States is currently at relatively low volumes of natural gas 

flaring (Figure 17). Nationwide flaring is at less than 1% on average and can be credited to the 

industrialized economy of the United States, coupled with decades of building interstate natural gas 

pipelines that allows large volumes of production to be moved to areas of consumption. 

North Dakota is not immune to the same market forces that drove natural gas flaring to very low levels 

around the United States. The state is already experiencing the rapid build out of natural gas 

infrastructure as described throughout this report.

FIGURE 17

Image Source: EIA
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North Dakota is also not alone in the flaring challenges associated with new petroleum exploration and 

production. Figure 18 is a snapshot of flaring in the other 49 states. The impacts of the “shale 

revolution” have caused flaring to almost double in other areas of the country. It is important to keep in 

perspective the industry history and success in reducing flared volumes from these new discoveries as 

localized infrastructure is developed (Figure 17). 

FIGURE 18

Data Source: EIA

Conclusion

After taking a comprehensive look at the data surrounding natural gas production and flaring in North 

Dakota, it is clear that the momentum is shifting in favor of further expansion of natural gas gathering 

and processing. The same market drivers that have worked to bring nationwide flaring below 1% in the 

United States exist today in North Dakota. It is also evident that reducing natural gas flaring to 

somewhere below 5% in North Dakota will take years to accomplish and the state and industry can 

expect several challenges along the way.
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North Dakota is in a unique position to be a global leader in oilfield development. With much of the 

Bakken producing region previously undeveloped, this young oilfield can and should become the new 

industry standard by utilizing modern materials, technologies, and best practices. 

The road ahead for the pipeline industry in North Dakota is long. Building out the natural gas, crude oil, 

electrical, water, and other required infrastructure in North Dakota is going to take a great deal of 

cooperation and patience between all stakeholders. Despite the inevitable challenges, North Dakota is 

positioned to have one of the most advanced oilfields in the world and a petroleum producing region 

that current and future citizens of North Dakota can look upon with pride.

Definitions

MCF – Thousand Cubic Feet

MCFD – Thousand Cubic Feet per Day

MMCF – Million Cubic Feet

MMCFD – Million Cubic Feet per Day