The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[OakesCS]

Reading between the lines on your linked article and OB's: 1) the continued use of the word filtered suggests either that it is part of regulatory language or the blind are leading the blind and 2) the mention of $2500 per well suggests that the mechanism for reducing butane and propane is intended to be installed at the wellhead similar to a oil-water separator. The latter suggests that something like a vacuum unit will be 'strapped' on at every wellhead to 'boil' off the lightest hydrocarbons. The power to run such things won't be very costly, which is probably where the $0.10/bbl come from, however the cost of keeping the units running (think H2S corrosion) and penalties when they don't run or production has to be interrupted to fix a failed unit are probably much higher. In addition, it still doesn't address the disposition of the removed butane and propane. These are valuable products yet without pipelines they are orphaned. If they are flared then they'll increase the 'carbon footprint' dramatically and the environmentalists will then flog the producers for that without drawing the link back to themselves .