Maybe I've been out of the Alberta petroleum industry for too long.

In my day, the Alberta government penalized oil producers who flared their gas. So most of them found ways to route the gas back into gas infrastructure system. The producer gets a little revenue and no penalties, which is probably more than the cost of little pipeline.

If North Dakota is doing massive flaring of its oilfields, this is not responsible resource management.

The decline curve of oil/gas shales is different than conventional well. Initially flowrates are quite high, and then drop down a lot. Eventually prices do not justify production costs. when the wells are shut in, they can sit idle to recharge. Better flowrates and higher prices means they will be turned on again. Many of these wells will be around a century from now.