2012 January

Stanton Dodson: The State of Oil and Employment in the Bakken Shale Oil Formation

January 22, 2012 By Dom

Who is Stanton Dodson?

CEO of Great Dakota Energy, Stanton Dodson reports on new developments in the area known as the “Bakken” where one of the largest shale oil discoveries in US histories was made.

In 1996, petroleum geologist Dick Findley hit a jackpot in an otherwise barren area a few miles outside Sidney, Montana. He found a layer of dolomite, a porous mineral, some 9,000 feet underground…and it contained what had since been dubbed the largest on-shore oil field discovered in decades in the United States.

When news of the discovery broke, the US Geological Survey (USGS) launched a study to determine how large the oil reserve was and how it would impact the US oil industry which, at that time, was experiencing an all-time low. What they found shocked the USGS and made national headlines for years to come. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) made the biggest estimate on what US oil companies can expect to harvest from the Bakken Basin: billions of barrels of oil. This leads to many wonderful benefits, including a growth in the oil workforce in the states of Montana and North Dakota.

Bakken Basin Beckons to the Unemployed

With the Bakken Basin making national headlines, the number of people moving into North Dakota to look for work continues to grow. It might be surprising, but skilled and qualified individuals in the oil industry can find work within 24 hours of arriving in the state. The North Dakota State University made a study that determined the effect of the oil boom in the state’s employment rate: from 5,000 jobs in 2005, the oil boom has more than tripled its workforce so that by 2009, there are over 18,000 workers in the oil industry alone. With the continuous development in the industry, it looks highly likely that the number of jobs created will continue to grow, according to Stanton Dodson.

Not just an Oil Workforce

Jobs are also mushrooming in other industries that provide products and services to the burgeoning oil workforce.

Transportation and freight are crucial to the oil industry, and six-figure trucking jobs are available to those with license and clean criminal records. With the right clearances, truckers can get themselves hired overnight.

People who could not find temporary lodging when they move into the state usually end up sleeping in their vehicles in truck stops and parking lots. The states’ real estate and construction industries are now into some kind of frenzy as they try to keep up with the sudden and growing demand for low-cost housing.

Food services in the area can barely feed the workforce, and that’s not an understatement. In Williston, for example, the McDonald’s store is so busy it had to increase its rate to $15 per hour in order to attract more employees. Companies are now spending $120 per worker per day on the average in order to house and feed their growing workforce.

Unprecedented Growth

Local government units are now hard-pressed to keep up with the unprecedented growth in the area. Basic services such as housing, proper sewage, and parking spaces are limited, and that’s not counting the growing number of building permits and traffic violations inundating the local government offices. Traffic congestion has become a problem as well, what with thousands of trucks from city to country roads.

Not that the residents, old and new, are complaining. At the rate of its development, the oil boom in North Dakota and Montana is expected to hire thousands more people in the oil industry alone. That means thousands more jobs in auxiliary industries and a reduction in the states’ unemployment rate.

This story is brought to you by Stanton Dodson and Dom Einhorn. You can find a related story published by Stanton Dodson on the Bakken via this link.

Stanton Dodson’s Top 3 Reasons Why You Should Consider the Bakken

January 22, 2012 By Dom

Bakken Stanton Dodson

According to Great Dakota Energy CEO, Stanton Dodson, opportunities are abound in “the Bakken.” Here is his view:

1. The Bakken is the Most Significant Oil Boom in the US in Decades
…and, by official estimates, it looks like Bakken Basin’s massive oil reserve will stay for decades more. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) are both monitoring the development in the Bakken Basin. An April 2008 USGS report estimated the amount of technically recoverable oil using technology readily available at the end of 2007 within the Bakken Formation at 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels. Various other estimates place the total reserves, recoverable and non-recoverable with today’s technology, at up to 24 billion barrels. The most recent estimate places the figure at 18 billion barrels. With this massive reserve of shale oil, it’s little wonder that the Bakken is being touted as the biggest oil boom in decades following the 1970s peak and subsequent fall of US oil production.

Many industry players are optimistic that the Bakken Basin will free the US from oil importation – a burden which first started in the 1990s when the US imported almost two-thirds of its total oil consumption. The USGS is going to hold another survey of the area on 2012 to update their data collected from their 2008 survey. It is expected that with the advancements made in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the barrels of technically recoverable oil will rise. There are hundreds of companies currently operating oil rigs in the Bakken Basin, and dozens of oil rigs continue to be added every year.

2. Bakken Offers Numerous Opportunities
…and by that we mean opportunities both within the oil industry and many industries associated with it – one way or another – via exploration & production, equipment, products and services. With the unprecedented growth in the Bakken Basin, it’s not an overstatement to say that there’s something for everyone.

There are thousands of jobs waiting to be filled. Companies offer wages considerably higher than the state’s minimum rate, although finding suitable accommodations is a significant deterrent for many who wish to call this home. For enterprising people, there are needs to fill and an assured market waiting to do business with – from construction to logistics, food and catering, and beyond.

3. The Bakken Offers Exceptional Possibilities
With revenues multiplying at an unprecedented pace, opportunists are cashing in on the rapid growth in the Williston Basin.

One example are the companies that build and operate pipelines such as Kinder Morgan. From 2007 to 2010, the pipeline partnership gave their shareholders a 17.7 percent compound annual return. This is five times the annual return that major oil companies earn for their investors. With billions of revenue, Kinder Morgan announced in 2011 its $21 billion investment to acquire its competitor, El Paso Corporation.

At present, North Dakota – which covers part of the Bakken Basin – is one of the fastest growing states in the US. With unprecedented growth and development brought by the Bakken Basin, now is the right time to join the oil boom that will contribute billions of dollars to the U.S. economy.

This article is brought to you by Stanton Dodson and Dom Einhorn.