A Biden-era rule set May 7, 2026 as the hard deadline. New oil wells would be required to stop routine flaring entirely...route the gas, reinject it, or shut the well in. No exceptions. No grace period. The rule applied to every producing basin in America.

North Dakota regulators warned it would shut in 20,000 to 40,000 barrels a day across the state. Immediately.

That changes right now.

What The EPA Just Did

EPA issued guidance this week making clear that operators can continue flaring under an existing 30-day exemption when pipelines or gathering systems can't take the gas. No technical infeasibility report required. No bureaucratic hoop to jump through.

They followed that with a final rule that expanded the emergency flaring window from 24 hours to 72 hours and added new carve-outs for situations outside an operator's control.

The routine flaring ban still exists on paper. Enforcement has been off since March 2025...and the window to keep producing just got a lot wider.

Why This Matters To Every Hand In The Field

The Bakken is producing over 1.1 million barrels a day. Gas-to-oil ratios just hit an all-time record...more than 3 Mcf of gas comes up with every barrel of oil. That gas has to go somewhere.

Without this guidance, operators pulling gas out of non-core acreage...where gathering infrastructure hasn't caught up...would have had one option. Shut it in.

That's not an environmental win. That's roughnecks going home. That's rig counts dropping. That's Dickinson, Williston, and Midland feeling it at the truck stop and the hardware store inside of 60 days.

The Numbers

North Dakota is currently capturing 95.2% of its gas statewide...well above the state's own 91% target. The Bakken core is running 95.8%.

The industry they spent two years calling reckless is already outperforming the standard they were trying to enforce.

The Bakken didn't get here by accident. It got here because the men and women running these wells, building these pipelines, and sitting on locations in January figured out how to do it right.

Today was supposed to change that.

It didn't.