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Sometimes the oil is collected but the gas is burned off because it is not economically feasible to collect it. Kind of like in this picture: https://www.alamy.com/an-oil-well-pump-jack-natural-gas-flar...

If only there was some sort of pipe that could be used to divert this gas over long distances to more economic processing facilities.

If only there were regulations that said you had to use that pipe even if it is not economically feasible. But there aren't, so it gets burned.

You could imagine some kind of small portable power station that burns the excess gas and...

Well, there is typically no electrical grid by an oil well, so what to do with it might be the biggest problem