If you see any flares going up around SaskEnergy on Monday and Tuesday it’s all part of employee training.
SaskEnergy is conducting training exercises in North Battleford at SaskEnergy’s North Battleford office at 10010 - Fifye Ave. between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. both days.
The training involves a controlled flare of natural gas. The flaring is to train their technicians in the use of mobile compressed natural gas trailers, which SaskEnergy uses to provide temporary service to customers during planned pipeline maintenance or when an emergency occurs, such as a pipeline rupture.
During the training, SaskEnergy releases small amounts of natural gas from its CNG trailers in a controlled burn. Drivers going past the North Battleford office may see a two- or three-foot flame emitted from a six-foot flare stack temporarily attached to the CNG trailer. The area around the flares will be supervised and barricaded for safety. Traffic along Fifye Avenue will not be restricted during this time.
According to SaskEnergy, flaring is an industry standard procedure when natural gas needs to be released from a pipeline. They estimate the procedure reduces the carbon footprint of the vented natural gas by 85 per cent.
North Battleford Fire Department has been notified of this activity and no disruptions to SaskEnergy residential or business customers of natural gas service are expected.
