A pipeline capacity shortage caused natural gas flaring and venting to skyrocket to a record high in the first quarter of the year in the Permian, Rystad Energy said in a new report . The average daily rate of flaring and venting reached 661 million cu ft with the research firm noting “This widespread waste of a valuable commodity is the result of persistent infrastructure challenges, a lack of sufficient takeaway capacity and an unexpected outage on a key pipeline in the area.” The annualized rate of gas flaring in the Permian comes in at 6.8 billion cu m, which is theoretically enough to meet much of the gas demand of whole countries. Together with the Bakken, which is the other flaring hot spot in the United States, oil and gas producers waste so much of the commodity that it exceeds the annual gas demand of certain countries such […]