With Wyoming’s shale oil industry still very much in its infancy, a large volume of state-owned natural gas is going up in smoke, and along with it a small fortune in royalties that are supposed to fund our public schools.
According to the Office of State Lands and Investments — which has the fiduciary responsibility to maximize revenue from state-owned lands and minerals to fund Wyoming schools — some 411,789 thousand cubic feet (mcf) of gas (enough to serve 4,100 homes for a year) from state-owned mineral leases was flared from October 2009 to October 2011.
That’s an approximate loss of $200,000 to Wyoming’s K-12 students.
Wyoming’s volume of wasted natural gas may seem tiny in comparison to the massive bleed from the Bakken shale oil play in North Dakota (up to 134,000 mcf per day, according to one estimate). What is regarded as a small flaring and royalty loss in Wyoming today could quickly balloon if the Niobrara oil play hits paydirt. And there’s concern that Wyoming’s leaders will submit to pressure from the oil and gas industry to ignore the lost royalties.
