Why do oil rigs always have a little fire burning of it?

A gas flare or flare stack is an elevated vertical stack or chimney found on oil wells or oil rigs, and in refineries, chemical plants and landfills used for burning off unwanted gas or flammable gas and liquids released by pressure relief valves during unplanned over-pressuring of plant equipment.


On oil production rigs, in refineries and chemical plants, its primary purpose is to act as a safety device to protect vessels or pipes from over-pressuring due to unplanned upsets. This acts just like the spout on a tea kettle when it starts whistling as the water in it starts boiling. Whenever plant equipment items are over-pressured, the pressure relief valves on the equipment automatically releases gases (and sometimes liquids as well) which are routed through large piping runs called flare headers to the flare stacks. The released gases and/or liquids are burned as they exit the flare stacks. The size and brightness of the resulting flame depends upon how much flammable material was released.Why do oil rigs always have a little fire burning of it?
They are burning off the natural gas that comes out of the ground with the oil they are pumping.Why do oil rigs always have a little fire burning of it?
They are just burning off methane that is coming out. It is sometimes difficult to capture the methane to make it profitable so some rigs just let it burn off.