Wyoming Adopts New Natural Gas Flaring Rules

While the Interior Department prepares to hold a public hearing in Oklahoma City on venting and flaring rules on public and Indian Trust Lands, the state of Wyoming approves new flaring rules this week covering any newly-drilled wells.

Under the rules approved by the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, companies would need approval to vent or flare longer than six months. Lower volumes of gas could be released without burning but higher volumes would need to be burned off for safety and to limit air pollution. Flared gas could not exceed 45 million cubic feet or 600 times more gas than an average U.S. household uses in a year without commission approval.

John Robitaille, vice president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming said industry officials and environmentalists generally support the rules that will help state regulators gather more data about flaring in Wyoming.

“Companies are continuously doing everything they can to get product to market,” he said. “Given the choice of sending the product to market or not, if the price is economical, I think they will do everything they can to get that produce to market.”

The new flaring rule was adopted even though an estimated 0.26 percent of all gas produced in Wyoming in 2014 was lost to venting or flaring.

“Really, we’re talking about implementing rules on a very minuscule amount of natural gas in this state,” said Robitaille.

But Amber Wilson with the Wyoming Outdoor Council has a different view on the subject. She said the rules should have gone further by prohibiting venting and requiring companies to economically justify flaring and venting.

“More could have been done at this stage to reduce waste and protect Wyoming’s air quality,” said Wilson.