Oil Boom in North Dakota - 5022 Words

UNITED STATES Oil in the Bakken region is boosting local economies but attracting a gritty scene Albertans know well The strip clubs in Williston, N.D., are the rowdiest that Tatiana, an exotic dancer who has performed in Las Vegas and New York, has ever seen. Oil workers coming off the nearby rigs pack the city s two clubs, Whispers and Heartbreakers, every night. They smell like work. They wear dirty T-shirts. They fall asleep face first on the bar. And then there are the prostitutes. Tatiana, who asked that her real name not be used, noticed them wandering though the crowd looking for customers on her first night in North Dakota. They re not in there to tip the dancers, she says with a laugh. Williston is the heart of†¦show more content†¦Some of those drivers are bound for Estevan, where they load their product onto the CP lines in the middle of town, which, Mayor St. Onge admits, is a little bit dangerous. F OR many years, North Dakota has been the least visited state in the Union. There are no real tourist attractions here; Mount Rushmore is in South Dakota. The late news man Eric Sevareid, who was born in North Dakota, called his native state â€Å"a large, rectangular blank spot in the nation’s mind.† But reporters from all over the world have been coming here lately, because North Dakota boasts one of the most interesting and exciting stories in the country: an honest-to-goodness boom. The state has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, at 3.1 percent. Some wonder who could be out of work, given all the â€Å"Help Wanted† signs. North Dakota is No. 1 in job growth and No. 1 in income growth. At the heart of this pros ¬perity is the Bakken formation, located in the northwestern part of the state. It’s a vast pot of oil. â€Å"Bakken,† incidentally, rhymes with â€Å"rockin’.† They have a bumper sticker here: â€Å"Rockin’ the Bakken.† Oil was discovered in this area in 1951, but the trick was extracting it. Then, not long ago, came a marriage of two techniques—one older, one newer. The older one was â€Å"hy - draulic fracturing,† or â€Å"fracking,† for short. This is the method by which oil or natural gas is forced from rock. The newer technique was horizontalShow MoreRelatedThe Oil And Natural Gas Resources1242 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"In North Dakota, the nation’s second largest petroleum producing state after Texas, the number of rigs has dropped to 65 from some 191 last year. More than 10,000 jobs have been lost. And unemployment insurance benefits have risen by a reported 115 percent† (Bobb). The Bakken Formation is the oil and natural gas resource in North Dakota. The Bakken Oil Field in North Dakota is young, at only ten to fifteen years old. It has experienced tremendous growth and success, but is now in its first recessionRead MoreImpact Of The On North Dakota Essay 1240 Words   |  5 Pagesaffected by the Oil boom, countless have made millions on this product. Oil isn t always easy to find, as a matter of fact, it can be very difficult. Often times oil seeps to the top of the surface, making it easy to find, but most of the time people have to drill to find it. In the earlier days rigs could only work on land, however now we can use oil platforms to get oil from under sea beds. Many towns like Bainville and Watford city are being affected very heavily because of the oil, changes include:Read MoreIndigenous Peoples Of Native Americans919 Words   |  4 Pagesrestore what damage that has been done to them. But instead, big companies are destroying sacred land all over the United States by mining, drilling for oil, or even building for scientific research. â€Å"Since the late 1800s, the U.S. government has appropriated much of the original tribal lands associated with the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota for railroads and white homesteaders.† (Lustgarten) These lands were to be set aside and untouchable to the nonnatives. These lands were supposed toRead MoreWind Power: Giving Back to the Environment Essay1198 Words   |  5 PagesThe western plains of North Dakota have recently experienced a boom of a great magnitude. The oil industry has found great success from fracking in the region. This Fracking is producing considerable amounts of oil and natural gas. Although the region has seen great wealth from these fossil fuels we need to remember that they are pumping great amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere which is essentially destroying our environment. Taking care of our environment has come to the forefront of the powerRead MoreNorth Dakota s State Regulatory Agencies2619 Words   |  11 PagesMany would not bel ieve that North Dakota has some serious environmental concerns, at least I did not. I always thought of North Dakota as a stable and somewhat of a quiet state. After doing some extensive research, I found that North Dakota has environmental concerns with terrestrial, atmospheric, and aquatic ecosystems. As for aquatic ecosystems, the main damage has been done through haphazard artificial drainage, excessive water diversions, and improper disposal of industrial waste. Impact to terrestrialRead MoreThe Fort Berthold Indian Reservation1072 Words   |  5 PagesAn oil boom at the Fort Berthold reservation has attracted thousands of newcomers—and a wave of hard-to-prosecute crime. (Sierra Crane-Murdoch) On an early morning last June, on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in western North Dakota, tribal officer Nathan Sanchez was nearing the end of his shift when he noticed a frantic stirring in the cattails alongside the road. A girl emerged. Her jeans were wet, her halter-top fallen to her waist. Sanchez approached in his car to ask what had happenedRead MoreGas Flaring And Its Effects On The World1015 Words   |  5 Pagesdescending order include; Russia, Nigeria, Iran, Iraq and most recently the U.S. jumped to number 5 on the list due to the recent oil boom in the Bakken shale in North Dakota and production operations in Wyoming. The rest of the countries that flare gas at an alarming rate include, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Angola, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Furthermore, according to the World Bank, oil production plants around the globe burn approximately 140 billion m3 (~4.9 trillion ft3) on an annual basis. This permits moreRead MoreMany Conflicts in History718 Words   |  3 Pagesfrom similar reasons, which may happen in repetition. In the text of â€Å"North Dakota’s oil boom gives birth to new breed of migrant worker† (Newsela), a man named Andrew Klefstad goes to work in North Dakota for the same reason as anybody else; he needs more money for bills and other expenses. Andrew occasionally goes to North Dakota to clean oil spills all for the money he needs at home. People like Andrew need to go to North Dakota to solve the same conflict, money, and every time somebody goes to workRead MoreThe World Is An Ever Changing Place1229 Words   |  5 Pagesever changing place, moving at a punishing pace. This perpetual motion requires a constant source of energy. This energy comes in the form of oil and petroleum products, products that invigorate both our cars and America’s foreign and domestic policy. Oil is king. It rules everyday life, national policy, and the fates, even the lives, of millions of people. Oil is power in the form of black liquid in a barrel. However, America does not, at the moment, have the ability to control this valuable resourceRead MoreFracking Transportation And Modeling : A Literature Review3710 Words   |  15 Pagesdrilling mud, chemicals, gravel and pipes etc.) 16 (Fresh) water and its transportation modeling 16 Frac sand and its transportation 18 3.1.2 Outbound movements 19 Waste water disposal 19 Drill cuttings 20 Production: oil, natural gas liquids (NGL) and natural gas 21 Natural gas 21 Oil and Natural gas liquids 22 3.1.3 Population growth impact 23 4.0 Supply Chains in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale Case Study Area 24 4.1 Overview of the TMS play 24 4.2 Challenges and opportunities 25 4.3 Transportation