When Natural Gas Prices Cool, Flares Burn in the Permian Basin [Video]

PECOS COUNTY, Texas – Sharon Wilson trained her bulky, black camera on a thin, steel tower next to a natural gas compression station.

The screen of her Optical Gas Imaging camera lit up with warm colors, indicating that methane was pouring out of the tower. 

Wilson, of the non-profit Oilfield Witness, was recording the Oklahoma-based company ONEOK’s Coyanosa station in its WesTex pipeline network. The station maintains pipeline pressure of natural gas during transportation. 

Wilson documented widespread flaring, venting and other methane releases during a week in the Texas Permian Basin this month. Natural gas prices in the Permian Basin fell below zero during March. When natural gas prices are low, companies are more likely to vent or flare methane. Pipeline capacity to transport the gas out of the Permian Basin is currently limited, which can also result in more flaring.

That’s bad news for efforts to fight climate change. …