Environmental Impacts of Gas Flaring

This assignment examines the environmental impact of gas flaring, a common practice in oil and gas refineries. It focuses on the issue in North Dakota, highlighting the reasons behind excessive flaring (cost and infrastructure limitations) and its detrimental effects. The assignment also discusses international efforts to address gas flaring through regulations and treaties like the North East Atlantic Convention 1990 and the United Nations Environment Program.

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECT OF OIL AND GAS
Gas Flaring
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

1ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECT OF OIL AND GAS
Gas flare is a gas combustion device that is used in petroleum refineries and natural
gas refineries. They are used to burning off the flammable gas release and helps to manage
the over pressure regarding the same. The main thing regarding the same can be observed
during the extracting of gas or oil form the refineries and at that time, some oil or gas has
been flared as unusable1. These gas or oils are associated in the chamber and re-injected into
the tank to manage the oil producibility. Many countries are facing serious problems
regarding the same and certain environmental disasters occurred regarding the same. in
recent times, news regarding the same has been highlighted in the continents of Nigeria.
However, it is also a burning topic to the countries like USA or Australia.
North Dakota is a part of the United States and facing serious problems regarding the
gas flaring issue. One of the main reasons regarding the flaring is huge imposition of costs.
The second cause for the same is the lack of infrastructure. There has been a rapid growth
regarding the gas flares can be seen due to growth in production of oil in that area 2. The gas
gathering facilities are also poor in this area and that makes it more difficult to deal with the
problem regarding gas flares. The process that are used regarding the same is older in nature
and they are inadequate to handle the issue.
1Stohl, Andreas, et al. "Black carbon in the Arctic: the underestimated role of gas flaring and residential
combustion emissions." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 13.17 (2013): 8833-8855.
2 Werner, Angela K., et al. "Environmental health impacts of unconventional natural gas development: a review
of the current strength of evidence." Science of the Total Environment 505 (2015): 1127-1141.

2ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECT OF OIL AND GAS
It has been reported that almost one third of the produced gas is flared in North
Dakota and it is important to deal with this problem very soon as it causes great environment
issue. It has been observed that a large gap occurs during the gas flaring. It has been
mentioned that the oil and gas researchers should have to follow the rules and regulations
regarding the environment law and there are certain treaties passed to support the program.
One of such treaty is North East Atlantic Convention 1990 and United Nation Environment
Program.

3ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECT OF OIL AND GAS
Reference:
Stohl, Andreas, et al. "Black carbon in the Arctic: the underestimated role of gas flaring and
residential combustion emissions." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 13.17 (2013): 8833-
8855.
Werner, Angela K., et al. "Environmental health impacts of unconventional natural gas
development: a review of the current strength of evidence." Science of the Total
Environment 505 (2015): 1127-1141.