So i'm down in North Dakota this week working on a Gas Plant, and Ive noticed that all of their wells have flares, and some of these flares are huge - you can see them from 20 miles away. They also seem to have between 5 and 15 tanks next to the wells which makes me think that they dont have a pipeline network between the wells. I presume the flares are venting off natural gas that is also in the same hole as the oil, but how come alberta wells dont have flares? and how do you tell if these are just normal light crude wells or fracking wells?
This is an example of one of them:
https://media.npr.org/assets/img/201...a-s800-c85.jpg
Edit: Also I had to drive here from Regina, SK and around Estevan were a shit tonne of wells (like the alberta ones) more wells than Ive seen until perhaps north dakota where there are also tonnes.
The town ive been staying in Williston, ND reminds me alot of Fort McMurray and I thought that the oil bust had not really affected the US oil workers but it is clear that its affected everyone here as well. For example all of the work camps are empty here.