I recently flew out to Iowa to pick up my new Ford Maverick and drive it back to the Northeast.  I took the "scenic route" home.  When I was driving across the southern parts of Illinois and Indiana, I saw walking beam ("horse head") pumps in some of the fields like I remember seeing when I was visiting Kansas.  

 

The different, and interesting thing I noticed was that many of them had a vertical pipe with an open flame burning.  Is this to burn off coal gas or natural gas that gets into the water well?  

 

 

I believe those are oil wells and the flame is burning off methane / natural gas.

28 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I believe those are oil wells and the flame is burning off methane / natural gas.

These pumps are small and were out in the middle of corn fields, so I didn't think they were oil wells.   I just looked at a map of oil wells in the southern end of Indiana and the area I drove through is covered with them!

 

They are indicated in green here: https://igws.indiana.edu/PDMS/Map/

 

Thanks,

Bob