By Tsvetana Paraskova - of OilPrice.com - Feb 01, 2021, 3:00 PM CST
Gas flaring in the largest U.S. shale plays has been in the spotlight since the shale revolution started. Pressure from society and ESG investors have recently turned up the heat on the oil and gas industry to reduce flaring and eliminate routine flaring as a step toward contributing to emissions reduction.
The spotlight in the United States is on the biggest shale basin, the Permian, where flaring soared to record highs while production was surging in 2019, and fell in 2020 to the lowest since the shale boom started, due to lower oil and gas drilling and fewer new wells put into production.
Most of the spotlight has been on the larger portion of the Permian in Texas, but neighboring New Mexico, home to part of the Delaware basin—one of the most active and prolific basins in the Permian—has also had to grapple with the flaring issue.