The Bakken shale’s good news for gas processors

J. Stell, Contributing Writer As unconventional oil and gas production in North Dakota’s (ND’s) Bakken shale play tops 1 Bcfd amid falling crude oil prices, some upstream developers show early indications of moving their focus away from oil and toward more natural gas—which is good news for gas processors. ND regulations now require reduced gas flaring and more oil conditioning. Effective April 1, new regulations require oil producers to gradually step down gas flaring at oil wells until no more than 10% of all gas is flared by 2020, and producers are making inroads on the regulations. During 2014, ND cut flaring from 36% to 24%. At present, approximately 7% of the state’s wells are not co