17 AUGUST 2024 WorldWide Drilling Resource® Flaring is the controlled combustion of natural gas with a flare stack elevated above the ground or in a combustor situated a safe distance from surface facilities and personnel. Natural gas is burned in an attempt to eliminate potentially unsafe, flammable vapors and to destroy unwanted emissions of methane and VOCs (volatile organic compounds). VOCs are various organic chemical compounds that evaporate quickly especially from solvents, adhesives, fuels, or industrial wastes and contribute to photochemical smog in the atmosphere. Properly designed flare systems destroy methane and VOCs before they are released into the atmosphere. The alternative to flaring is venting, which is the controlled release of hydrocarbon vapors into the atmosphere. Flaring is safer than venting because it effectively destroys more than 98% of the methane and VOCs in the waste gas stream. Flaring occurs during drilling and completion operations, routine field production operations, and gas gathering and processing operations. It is an essential and necessary part of gas and oil production as well as processing operations. During drilling operations, some geologic formations can lead to natural gas being brought to the surface by the circulating fluid, or drilling mud, at the rig site. This natural gas must be managed at the drilling rig to keep personnel safe. Typically, it is routed to a flare device which destroys the methane and VOCs to maintain a safe operating environment on-site. These flaring events, if they occur at all, are short and last no more than a few days on a given well. They are managed by the rig crew to keep the gas flow rate to the flare at a safe, low level. Once an oil well has been drilled, it is completed, which involves connecting the oil-bearing reservoir to the well so gas and oil can flow to the surface. After the completion process, flowback operations begin. Flowback is the period when fluids are first recovered from the wellbore. This fluid may consist of crude oil; completion and produced water; solid particulates such as sand; and natural gas. Because of the solids in the flow stream, the flow cannot be handled through normal production facilities until these particulates clean up. During flowback, the combined fluid stream from the wellhead is sent through specially designed equipment to safely remove the solids and separate crude oil, natural gas, and water. The liquids are typically stored in tanks at the well site and the hydrocarbon vapors are sent to a nearby flare for destruction on manned sites until the well is cleaned up and flowing consistently, at which time the flow is routed to a pipeline for delivery to an upstream production facility or the well is shut in, and the temporary flowback/well testing facilities are removed. Flaring in the Oilfield Adapted from Information by the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association G&O
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