SaskEnergy will be conducting training exercises in Weyburn on Monday, May 9th and Tuesday, May 10th involving a controlled flare of natural gas. The training will be taking place at SaskEnergy’s Weyburn Town Border Station #1 – located 1.6 kilometres north of Weyburn on Highway 35 – between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. both days. The flaring is necessary in order to train technicians in the use of mobile compressed natural gas (CNG) trailers. CNG trailers are used by SaskEnergy to provide temporary service to customers either during planned pipeline maintenance, or when an emergency occurs, such as a pipeline is ruptured during unsafe excavation by a contractor or homeowner. During this training, SaskEnergy will be releasing small amounts of natural gas from its CNG trailers in a controlled burn called a flare. Flaring is an industry standard procedure when natural gas needs to be released from a pipeline and reduces the carbon footprint of the vented natural gas by 85 per cent. Drivers in the area may see a two to three foot flame being emitted from the six-foot flare stack temporarily attached to a CNG trailer at the Station. The area around the flares will be supervised and barricaded to ensure public safety. Traffic in the area will not be restricted. SaskEnergy has notified the Weyburn Fire Department of the upcoming event. There will be no disruptions to natural gas service to SaskEnergy residential or business customers in the area.
