# Flared Gas Royalty in North Dakota: What You Are Owed > North Dakota law lets gas be flared for one year from first production. After that the operator must cap, connect or equip the well, or pay royalty on the flared gas. How to check your own well, free. Source: https://www.berlinroyalties.com/north-dakota/flared-gas-royalty/ Publisher: Berlin Royalties, a veteran-owned oil and gas mineral and royalty buyer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, buying for its own account since 2014. Call or text 918-984-1645. License: free to quote and cite with attribution to Berlin Royalties and a link to the source URL. North Dakota ยท Royalties ## Flared gas royalty in North Dakota North Dakota gives an operator one year to flare. After that the well must be capped, connected or equipped, or the producer owes royalty on the gas being burned. Here is the statute, how to check your own well for free, and an honest account of how much this is still worth. [Ask a Landman, Free](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/ask-a-landman/) [Decode My Statement](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/royalty-statement-decoder/) This is a real right, it is written into statute, and most North Dakota mineral owners have never heard of it. It is also worth much less today than it was ten years ago, and we would rather tell you that at the top than let you find out at the bottom. ## What the statute says **N.D.C.C. section 38-08-06.4** is titled "Flaring of gas restricted, imposition of tax, payment of royalties." Its structure is simple: - Gas produced with crude oil **may be flared during a one year period from the date of first production** from the well. - After that year, flaring must cease and the well must be **capped**, **connected to a gas gathering line**, equipped with a generator consuming at least **seventy five percent** of the gas, equipped with a system taking at least seventy five percent of the gas and liquids for beneficial use, or equipped with another value added process approved by the Commission that cuts the flare by more than sixty percent. - For a well operated in violation of the section, **the producer must pay royalties to the mineral owners** on the flared gas, and gross production tax on it. An operator can be excused from this by obtaining an exemption from the Industrial Commission on the ground that connecting the well is economically infeasible. The standard is in **N.D.A.C. 43-02-03-60.2**: the direct cost of connecting and operating the connection over the life of the well must exceed what the operator is likely to receive for the gas, less production taxes and royalties, and the operator may add ten percent for cost of money and overhead. **You are allowed to be heard on that application.** Under N.D.A.C. 43-02-03-88.1, exemption applications are advertised and set for hearing, and any interested party may appear to oppose or comment, or file written comments received by 5:00 p.m. on the last business day before the hearing. ## The honest part: this matters less than it did A page like this is usually written to make you angry. Here is the actual picture. North Dakota's gas capture goal, set by Commission order, has been **91 percent since 1 November 2020**. In the Director's Cut published 20 August 2026, covering June 2026 production, statewide capture was **95.5 percent** and Bakken capture was **95.7 percent**. The industry is running about four and a half points ahead of the goal. And when we looked at four 2026 NDIC hearing dockets, in April, May, June and July, **we found no flaring exemption applications at all**. A decade ago those dockets carried them routinely. Four dockets is a strong indication rather than a census, but the direction is unmistakable. One more distinction worth holding onto, because it is easy to blur: **the capture goal is not the source of the royalty obligation**. Missing the goal does not by itself trigger a royalty under 38-08-06.4. The goal is enforced against the operator through production restrictions and civil penalties. The royalty obligation comes from the statute and the one year clock, independently. So: if you have a well that came online in the last few years, this is probably not your issue. If you have an older well, or a well in a corner of the basin where gathering never arrived, it is worth ten minutes. ## How to check your own well, free You do not need a subscription and you do not need us. - **Find your well's first production date.** The NDIC well search at [dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/findwellsvw.asp](https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/findwellsvw.asp) gives status, file number and first production. That date starts the one year clock. - **Pull the monthly production report** at [dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/mprindex.asp](https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/mprindex.asp), free, in PDF and Excel. Each well row carries columns for **Gas** and **Gas Sold**. - **Subtract.** Gas minus Gas Sold is the volume not sold, which is flared gas plus gas burned on the lease as fuel. A persistent, large gap on a well more than a year past first production is your flag. - **Check the dockets** at [dmr.nd.gov/oilgas](https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/) to see whether your operator has an exemption application pending on your unit. Reports post roughly a month and a half after the reporting month closes, so the most recent month you can see is always a little behind. One caution on step three. Gas minus Gas Sold combines flared gas with gas legitimately burned on the lease for fuel. It is a flag, not a finding. We could not confirm that a separate flared-only volume is published per well for free, so treat the gap as the start of a question rather than the answer to one. ## If the numbers look wrong The route here is not a lawsuit against your operator as a first step. The mechanism the statute builds is a petition to the Industrial Commission, and the Commission determines the value of the flared gas. Before any of that, North Dakota gives you something most states do not. The **North Dakota Royalty Oversight Program**, run out of the Department of Agriculture, is an independent royalty ombudsman. It responds to a mineral owner within two business days, keeps your identity confidential, and is free. It will not take up matters already in regulatory review or in litigation, or issues older than six years. Call **(701) 328-5110, option 1**, or email royaltyoversight@nd.gov. Also ask your operator for the statement North Dakota already requires them to give you. See [the ownership interest statement](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/north-dakota/ownership-interest-statement/). ### Send us the well name and we will look. We pull North Dakota production records every week. We will run the gas against the gas sold, check the first production date against the one year clock, and tell you whether there is anything there. Free, no obligation, and we will tell you when the answer is nothing. [Ask a Landman](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/ask-a-landman/) [Get a Free Valuation](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/free-valuation/) ## Related - [The statement your North Dakota operator owes you](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/north-dakota/ownership-interest-statement/) - [North Dakota versus Montana for a royalty owner](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/north-dakota-vs-montana-royalties/) - [Where Bakken drilling is moving](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/bakken/where-the-drilling-is-moving/) - [Royalty payment laws by state](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/royalty-payment-laws/) - [Unclaimed royalties](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/unclaimed-royalties/) and [the statement decoder](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/royalty-statement-decoder/) - [North Dakota mineral rights](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/north-dakota/) and the [North Dakota owner's guide](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/guide/north-dakota/) Statute and rules quoted from N.D.C.C. 38-08-06.4, N.D.A.C. 43-02-03-60.2 and N.D.A.C. 43-02-03-88.1. Capture figures from the NDIC Director's Cut published 20 August 2026 for June 2026 production. Berlin Royalties is a mineral buyer and a landman shop in Tulsa, not a law firm. This is general information about a statute, not advice about your well, and a claim worth real money is worth an attorney.