Oil Booms in North Dakota

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

And unfortunately the political leadership (I use that term loosely) in Minot and Ward County is not prepared to handle this growth.

You are correct. The incompetence is going to cost the area dearly.

[darell1976]

You are correct. The incompetence is going to cost the area dearly.

Then they should have people live here and work out there....the commute should be only around an hour or so.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-10/20/content_11431683.htm

China aims to lead the world in high-speed railway construction, according to the Ministry of Railways, and has plans to develop a "super-speed" train with a speed of up to 500 km per hour.

500Kph = just over 310mph.

[bisonh8er]

You are correct. The incompetence is going to cost the area dearly.

Care to elaborate?

[ScottM]

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/25/140784004/new-boom-reshapes-oil-world-rocks-north-dakota?ps=cprs

Interesting piece on the NoDak oil boom, and some of the downsides.

[star2city]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/business/energy-environment/in-north-dakota-wasted-natural-gas-flickers-against-the-sky.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

NEW TOWN, N.D. — Across western North Dakota, hundreds of fires rise above fields of wheat and sunflowers and bales of hay. At night, they illuminate the prairie skies like giant fireflies.

[ScottM]

“North Dakota is not as bad as Kazakhstan, but this is not what you would expect a civilized, efficient society to do: to flare off a perfectly good product just because it’s expensive to bring to market,” said Michael E. Webber, associate director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Texas at Austin.

Ouch.

[star2city]

Wall Street Journal: How North Dakota Became the New Saudi Arabia

http://online.wsj.co...4023932438.html

The degree to which oil will change North Dakota's economy, culture, and educational system in both positive and negative ways is still almost unimaginable IMHO

Wall Street Journal: Peak Oil is Dead

http://online.wsj.co...DS=North+Dakota

Since the beginning of the 21st century, a fear has come to pervade the prospects for oil, fueling anxieties about the stability of global energy supplies. It has been stoked by rising prices and growing demand, especially as the people of China and other emerging economies have taken to the road.

Since that WSJ author is none other than Daniel Yergin, few people have more credibility.

[star2city]

Los Angeles Times: North Dakota isn't feeling the slump

http://www.latimes.c...0,2405433.story

Reporting from Watford City, N.D.—

If people anywhere in the nation should feel good about the economy, it's those living in North Dakota, where an oil boom is creating so many jobs that even taco joints offer $15 an hour to attract employees.

Drawn by the promise of well-paying jobs, people from across the country flock here and settle in the makeshift clusters of RV campers and manufactured mobile homes that dot the outskirts of towns like this one, two hours south of the Canadian border.

Williston apartments raise rent from $700 to $2000/month, effectively evicting Senior Citizens.

http://www.williston...31407080396.txt

Williston Herald Editorial: The Tragedy of Williston

http://www.williston...3e786685259.txt

If Williston wants to stop growth, it needs the state to slow the rate of drilling by slowing down the permit process. Recently, Williams County issued a moratorium on new man camps, because the people in the city were opposed to more people and traffic. So when oil companies were faced with no housing alternatives, they simply approached the apartment owners and offered to pay some ridiculous rate for renting the whole complex. Attempting to stop man camps pushed up the price of existing housing to ridiculous levels: simply supply and demand at work. Stopping the development of man-camps caused even more social problems and caused more relocations.

[MplsBison]

Obviously then the correct answer is for the city government to disallow greed-lusting apartment owners from agreeing to such ridiculous terms.

I know people who worship growth as the end all, be all of capitalist utopia will not agree - but unchecked, unplanned growth is not something to be excited about. It's something to be guarded against.

[star2city]

Star Tribune: North Dakota’s great oil rush

http://www.startribune.com/local/131923403.html

Minnesotans drawn to North Dakota’s siren song of prosperity

http://www.startribune.com/local/131956973.html

[Cratter]

Brian Williams new show on NBC, Rock Center, had a nice piece on North Dakota's oil boom called "Boomtown: High Paying Jobs, No Experience Required."

You can watch the video here:

http://www.msnbc.msn...101989#45101989

(Western) North Dakota where Big Sky country starts.

[star2city]

Wall Street Journal: Train Traffic Riding the Dakota Oil Boom

http://online.wsj.co...eTabs%3Darticle

DICKINSON, N.D.—A surge in crude-oil production in North Dakota is fueling a railroad boom in one of the nation's most remote regions, as producers bet that trains will be a quick and lucrative way to break a transportation bottleneck,

[star2city]

Reuters-North Dakota's oil boom poses political dilemma for US

http://www.reuters.c...E7M21I120111102

Nov 1 (Reuters) - If North Dakota's oil industry is helping transform North American and global energy markets, then oil is having just as big an impact on the state itself.

But the extent of the state's success poses awkward questions for political leaders in Washington and the rest of the country.

North Dakota has seen the fastest income growth of any state over the past five years, and almost all the gains are due to the boom sparked by drilling into the Bakken shale. Only the District of Columbia -- dominated by government, contracting and lobbying jobs -- has seen incomes rise more dramatically, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In a Manichean struggle, leaders in Washington and state capitals across the United States are being pressed to decide between embracing the job and income gains that come with drilling, or restrict them and focus on clean technology investments and employment instead.

[star2city]

This is a big story that will go under the radar by the media. If four Three Forks formations can yield oil economically, the number of oil wells that will be drilled will more than double. The Tyler formation, which is actually thicker and has more organic material than the Bakken and Three Forks, is also only now being developed.

Oil and Gas Journal: Oil Promise seen in four Three Forks Benches

http://www.ogj.com/a...ks-benches.html

In October Continental’s Charlotte 2-22H well in McKenzie County, ND, made 1,140 b/d of oil equivalent on its first 24-hr test as the company’s first horizontal test of a deeper Three Forks bench. The well’s lateral taps the second bench 50 ft below a typical first-bench lateral.

That said, some mid-major oil companies like EOG Resources and Newfield Exploration are reducing their Bakken drilling rigs in Mountrail and Williams - moving them elsewhere in the US - because of high completion costs from the lack of labor and infrastructure. When the labor and infrastructure situation improves, they will move back.

[star2city]

KXLF Butte: Bakken boom luring Montanans to North Dakota

http://www.kxlf.com/news/bakken-boom-oil-boom-luring-montanans-to-williston-north-dakota-for-work/

Bozeman entrepreneurs head to North Dakota

http://www.kxlf.com/news/bakken-boom-bozeman-entrepreneurs-heading-to-north-dakota/

[Hawkster]

We all remember the boom in the late 70's too. After things went bust, it took almost 20 years to recover. While I don't expect things to go south like they did 30 years ago, I don't believe in the rosy forecasts that some people are making either. I highly doubt Williston will get anywhere near 50,000 people. They couldn't even get over 15,000 in the last census, and yes I know things have changed a lot in the last year.

[star2city]

Brainerd workers moving to land of prosperity: North Dakota

http://brainerddispatch.com/lifestyle/2011-11-04/area-residents-take-land-prosperity-north-dakota#.TrWQivQr27s

Carlson said CNN reporters did a ride-along with the department recently and other national news organizations have descended upon the town. He said producers of the Discovery Channel’s “Ice Road Truckers” reality show plan to soon come and follow Williston police officers for a new television series.

Gallatin Valley workers head to Bakken

http://www.kxlf.com/news/bakken-boom-housing-scarce-as-montanans-and-others-flock-to-n-dakota-for-work/

Montana businesses find new life in Bakken

http://www.kxlf.com/news/bakken-boom-belgrade-business-finds-new-life-thanks-to-north-dakota-oil-boom/

Oil prompts building boom in Bismarck-Mandan

http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/oil-boom-prompts-more-building-in-bismarck-mandan/article_de98a5fe-0718-11e1-bf45-001cc4c03286.html

"I've got a lot of people working in Williston and Dickinson that can't find housing and are having their families live here," he said. "Some residents in Dickinson and Williston are selling their houses to people who need it more and moving here."

[star2city]

http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/04/8620188-oil-boom-brings-growing-pains-to-north-dakota-town

“This is kind of feeling like the pioneers that were originally here,” said Metzler, North Dakota operations manager for Granite Peak, a real estate development company. “We’re busting some new ground.”

“In the next five to seven years, we’ll double the size of [the] town,” said Metzler.

23,000 people now, 46,000 later in the decade.

[MplsBison]

Technically not oil, but thought this might be an appropriate thread. Don't assume automatically that it's an anti-petrochemical piece just because it's published in the NYT. It's not.

It's something I've said before: fracking can be ok as long as appropriate and reasonable regulation is in place. We can't trust the companies to do it the right way on their own, but it shouldn't be banned.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/opinion/brooks-the-shale-gas-revolution.html?src=me&ref=general

[darell1976]

Brainerd workers moving to land of prosperity: North Dakota

http://brainerddispa...ta#.TrWQivQr27s

Gallatin Valley workers head to Bakken

http://www.kxlf.com/...akota-for-work/

Montana businesses find new life in Bakken

http://www.kxlf.com/...akota-oil-boom/

Oil prompts building boom in Bismarck-Mandan

http://bismarcktribu...1cc4c03286.html

. He said producers of the Discovery Channel’s “Ice Road Truckers” reality show plan to soon come and follow Williston police officers for a new television series.

"Cops"...in Williston.

[Cratter]

Brian Williams new show on NBC, Rock Center, had a nice piece on North Dakota's oil boom called "Boomtown: High Paying Jobs, No Experience Required."

You can watch the video here:

http://www.msnbc.msn...101989#45101989

I am watching the show again. Brian Williams stated in the short week since the segment ended, the show has received many questions about the segment.

The story "struck a nerve." It was the shows first story ever.

"The phones rang off the hook in Williston, ND." after the segment.

The segment said don't come if you don't have a place to stay in the Winter.

They said they are going to do a followup segment this winter.

[bisonh8er]

I just came back from Minot and had some good conversation with some of the residents there. I don't know how many people will end up in that town but they were talking about Minot possibly getting to the size up around 70,000 in the next 10 to 15 years. I don't know how realistic it is but that means Minot would virtually double in size from about 5 years ago and I will say the amount of houses and apartments that are going up there is ridiculous. I also know that they are going to be building another 9-12 high school in the coming years.

[Cratter]

Grand Forks fifth largest in ND?

Minot’s population, 40,888 according to the 2010 census, now is estimated to exceed 50,000 and could double to 100,000 in the next five or 10 years, he added, as the city is becoming a hub for the oil industry.

“You’ve got to see it to believe.

Williston’s population now is estimated at 23,000, much higher than the 14,716 census count in 2010, is expected to climb to 40,000 in six or seven years, Grimshaw said.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/221148/

[ScottM]

http://www.startribune.com/nation/133824983.html

Property values and rents will keep increasing forever and ever, right?

[UND92,96]

http://www.startribu.../133824983.html

Property values and rents will keep increasing forever and ever, right?

I read a similar story in the Williston paper a couple months ago. I don't know how those landlords live with themselves.