"GAO Report: U.S. Loses Royalties as Oil and Gas Drillers Vent Methane"

"Oil and gas operators could economically capture nearly half their flared or vented natural gas on federal land to boost government royalties and reduce heat-trapping emissions, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released yesterday.

Using off-the-shelf technologies, operators could save about 40 percent of gas vented or burned at federal onshore leases and add about $23 million to their annual federal royalty payments, the 57-page report found.

The savings could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 16.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide -- the amount of CO2 generated by 3.1 million cars -- the report says."

Phil Taylor reports for Greenwire December 1, 2010.