[Ographer]

You're exactly right. I used to be a production engineer for an O&G company and new wells were usually ready to begin producing oil before the gas pipeline company had finished construction of the pipeline or the compressor station to operate it.

Because of the time-value of money, they want to produce the oil ASAP so that they can reinvest the proceeds to drill new wells. This meant that we had to flare gas the maximum legal amount every day for months until the pipelines were completed. I had to keep track of how much we flared and tell them to shut the well in if we were getting close to the legal limit.

Oil companies will ALWAYS pollute the maximum amount they are allowed by regulations when that is the most profitable solution.