Gas flaring refers to burning off excess gas at an oil or gas well. Flaring can be temporary or routine. Temporary flaring is when an operator is completing the installation of a well. Routine flaring refers to natural gas that has no pipeline so the gas is released to the atmosphere and burned because the operator can make a better profit by continuing to sell the oil that comes up the well along with the gas.
Either way, flaring is wasting gas, almost like burning money. How much gas are we talking about? As a round number, flared gas is 1% of total gas production. If an operator is making 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd) then amount of gas flared would be roughly 1 MMcfd.