We've all heard of fracking - it's the technique used to obtain shale gas. But a by-product of shale gas is methane. Rather than let methane escape into the atmosphere (where it is 24x more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas) it must be burnt off. This is done as a flare - a flame metres high - lighting up the nighttime sky for miles around. Just like the North Sea oil rigs.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/coming-to-sites-across-the-uk-soon--fracking-flares-8609940.html
If the fracking is being done to extract shale gas then that methane is the product, and flaring it off makes no sense.
They will probably flare off gas initially while setting up sites - as Rick says, the gas is the product. I believe the only reason they burn gas off on oil rigs is that it's not oil. The journalist is trying to be sensationalist and to whip up the antis.
You're right.
I forgot to think it through properly before posting.
Doh!!
Fracking is also used to obtain oil.
If the world is in such a mess with fossil fuel running out, it doesn't really make sense to discard the gas and market the oil, they are both worth money.