Actually this is one of my pet peeves. For the last two months, on the first page ofNational Geographic there has been these nice soothing two-page ads about how good Shell is to the environment. How they really care about how they leave nature after they are done with it. They even go so far as to imply that other oil companies aren't as concerned as Shell for the natural surroundings. Well, I live in one of the most resource rich places on this beautiful planet, and I have seen things that would make Joseph Hazelwood blush. But one of the most disgusting things that I have ever witnessed is the flaring of gas at the Hamburg facility in The Chinchaga area of the North Peace in Northern Alberta.
Now, I'll give you a little background on the production of petroleum products without going into too much technical detail:
First they find possible sites to look for oil/gas by doing what is called Seismographic Exploration. Basically, this is where they take soundings of the earths crust and determine likely places to drill a well. Next, they drill a well usually with a depth in the thousands of meters. Once they locate a pocket of crude oil/gas, they then run a pipeline from the well to a facility that seperates and cleans the product, and ships it to the consumer market. (Via pipelines)
Now I know that this is a necessary evil, since I'm typing on a plastic keyboard, sitting in my natural gas heated home, and generally I don't have a problem with the industry. (After all, I make my bread and butter in the oilpatch). My problem is with the waste that is perpetrated by Shell.
During the production of Natural gas (Methane), there are many other compounds that are seperated out of the "crude". These other products include butane, toulene, wax, salt water, and propane, to name a few. The wax is basically useless and as a matter of fact can actually plug the lines in the process. The salt water, in most cases is re-injected into the formation to serve a two-fold purpose of disposing of the water safely, and also keeping the pressure up for the taps (wells). The methane is sent to heat homes as far away as California. It is this gas that is commonly called "Natural gas". There are also substances known as Condensates which are prized for their high worth. These are also sent to the consumer.
Now, to the crux of the matter. Shell flares the propane, and other "useless" material in a big Flarestack Nothing new. Everyone does it, right? Well the last time I looked, it cost about 28 cents/liter (1.26/gal) or about 8.00 to fill my B-B-Q tank with propane. It's a commodity. So why aren't they selling it instead of flaring it? It's because they won't make enough profit to justify building a pipeline. Notice I diddn't say that they would lose money? They won't. They just won't make enough! And then they try to tell us that they care. Sheesh!
So I'm not one to sit around pissing and moaning about something that irks me, so I wrote a letter to National Geo. expressing my disappointment with the ad that they let Shell put into their great magazine. Alas, they sent me back a form letter thanking me for my input and diddn't that sound grand? It showed me that either nobody read it, or nobody cared. But, in the end, that's about all that I expected from them. After all they know what side their bread is buttered on. It's just a shame that a great society is being used to further Shell's bottom line, going against everything that I thought National Geographic stood for.