United States of America

Associated Gas Usage
Methane emissions, including venting from oil and gas production operations, are not regulated as a pollutant in the United States. Therefore, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not require companies to report the flared or vented methane emissions. However, the natural gas stream often contains many other constituents (that is, nonmethane volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants [HAPs] such as benzene, toluene, and mixed xylenes, and H2S gas). These substances are regulated by EPA, and, consequently, their release exceeds regulatory thresholds; reporting and flaring and controlling these releases is required.

Offshore:
Operators must either market produced gas to a pipeline company or transport the gas to shore for sale, use the gas for power generation, or temporarily reinject gas to enhance oil recovery. Gas must be produced for sale after the oil production objectives have been achieved. The Gulf of Mexico has a well-established pipeline infrastructure, and U.S. gas demand exceeds current production. Therefore, it is in the national interest to minimize flaring.

Permission to Flare
Offshore Regulations (30 CFR 250.1105):
Gas may be flared for up to 48 consecutive hours but not more than 144 hours in a calendar month as a result of equipment failures or upset conditions. Gas may be flared for up to 48 hours during well-testing or well-cleaning operations. Any longer periods of flaring require Minerals Management Service (MMS) approval.

Small volumes of gas vapors (generally less than 50 mcfd) from storage vessels or other low-pressure production vessels may also be flared or vented if the vapors cannot be economically recovered and transported.

The MMS may also allow operators to flare approved volumes of gas for periods of up to one year as necessary to install equipment that would eliminate the need for such flaring. However, operators must keep detailed flaring records, which are subject to MMS inspection.

Legislation
Offshore:
Flared gas volumes must be reported to the MMS as a part of monthly production statements.

Regulating Agencies
There are several entities that are involved in regulatory issues associated with onshore venting and flaring in the United States:

• Bureau of Land Management (BLM)—Part of the Department of the Interior, it regulates siting, drilling, and production activities on federal lands. The BLM imposes some regulatory reporting requirements on gas flaring and venting, which pertain mostly to resource conservation issues.
• The Environmental Protection Agency—The EPA regulates releases of HAPs and nonmethane volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from oil and gas production operations through National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs) and New Source Performance Standards (NSPS). See, for example, the Federal Register Notice for the NESHAP regulations. With regard to NSPS regulations, Section 111 of the Clean Air Act,  “Standards of Performance of New Stationary Sources,” requires the EPA to establish federal emission standards for source categories that cause or contribute significantly to air pollution. These standards are intended to promote use of the best air pollution control technologies, taking into account the cost of such technology, energy requirements, and any nonair quality, health, and environmental impact. For oil and gas operations, this often means controlling vented releases from storage tanks.
• Individual States—In addition to federal air quality regulations, many oil- and gas-producing states will often have their own set of rules and standards. In some cases, they may be more stringent than the federal standards. Some states, such as Alaska, also have reporting requirements (similar to BLM) for venting and flaring.

Offshore:

• Minerals Management Service—The MMS has very restrictive gas flaring policies, and, therefore, on a percentage basis, the volume of gas flared is very low. The MMS seeks to minimize emissions from flaring and venting.