Oil boom in North Dakota - anyone here part of it?

[addyguy]

Over the holidays, there have been a lot of newspaper articles about the oil boom happening in North Dakota, with the development of the Bakken oil deposit.

I know this isn't new information, but it seems like the 'boom effects' are showing up - massive traffic and housing problems, costs going throught the roof....just wondering if any folks on the board live in that area, and are seeing this madness first-hand?

 

[Colt45ws]

No, but I had a coworker transfer to the WalMart there. Wages out there are insane. He got bumped $5/hour compared to what he was making here.
Right now he is living in the house owned by his girlfriends boss. I guess her boss goes south for the winter so he rents it out and in the spring he will go back to living in his motorhome.
He told us that when they open the doors to the Tire and Lube Express in the morning, a full days work is already waiting. 70+ cars. They write them up and decline any more work the rest of the day.
My eyes have about popped out at some of the insanity he has told us about.

 

[bmod305]

The 18 year old son of my neighbor went up in June and he is now making $34.50 per hour on a rig. Works 7 on & 7 off with min 13 hour days. Lives in a "man camp". It is a modern day gold rush up there.

Dave

 

[saberz]

I heard of the insanity, price of goods have gone up increasingly fast(food), people who have been renting up in that area had their land lords also increase rent price to try and gauge them out and get the new works to rent at a higher cost.

 

[HWEaton]

I am. Aside from owning my oil/tire shop, I also work for a drilling company as a floorhand. Have to. I have one boy with medical issues that makes buying health insurance cost prohibitve as a small business.

It is insane up there.

 

[Coprolite]

My company has an office up there. It is very difficult to attract qualified employees at almost any wage and then find them a place to live.

 

[Lead Shoes]

My boss just bought 2 trucks and 55 foot extendable low boys and netted a nice contract moving the man camp buildings around from site to site on his trucks, all he said is it's nuts out there.

 

[otis24]

Article in the paper here stated that the elderly are suffering. Those on fixed income are seeing rent skyrocket from $500-$600 a month to $2100-$2200 per month. If I worked at my old job where I had summers off, I would go up and work for the summer and take advantage of the boom.

 

[-SyN-]

Brother-in-law works for a Trucking company here in Oklahoma... Drives a Truck Moving Rigs from one location to another... He is 47... been doing it for 15yrs... His company offord him an insane pay increase if he and 8 other employees would basically move up there and work for the next 3yrs or more... The company bought 3 houses up there for them to live in... Have no idea what town... He fell for it hook line and sinker... I tried to talk him out of it, but he thought the Money was too good to pass up... Well he sold his house here in 4 days... and moved his family up there... No kids... Within 4 months he was on his way back home...

He called and told me that in their spare time there is nothing to do at all... All he was ever around was Work-Heavy Drinking-Tons of Drugs... He has been in the oil field all his life and he told me he had never seen anything that bad... He had to get out of there...

 

[Clevy]

Sounds just like fort mcmurray. Have at er

 

[civic09]

Yeah, sounds like the "wild west" is back and alive and well. My father told me he was offered to drive semi out there, and he said " I would rather drink paint thinner and go #1 on a brush fire"


adam

 

[BBDartCA]

Originally Posted By: Clevy
Sounds just like fort mcmurray. Have at er


Its nowhere near as nuts as Fort Mac. But its pretty hot right now.

 

[Nodak]

The oil boom up here is just that--"BOOM"!!!- instant change.Yes, there are people being taken advantage of. There are many good things happening, and along with that we have to deal with the not so good things. It has definetly altered a way of life for many people who have a long heritage in there hometowns.
We hope that the good surpasses the bad in the long run.

 

[lexus114]

Sounds kinda like what happened to my Lehigh Valley!

 

[hawaiianxj]

I work for chk energy /Nomac drilling, its a boom and its going to do what the fas shales did to the north east, it will all play out in a year or two and they will leave and it will go back to normal

 

[Nodak]

I don't think that it is going to play out and return to normal here according to the 'experts'. There is an immense amount of oil here in the Bakken field and even then they feel they have only scratched the surface so to speak. With hydrofracking going on there will be oil pulled out of here for a long time coming. Supposedly there is more oil here possibly than Alaska.---It reminds me of the mid-1970's when the missle silos were planted up here in North Dakota--In 1975 we had so many nuclear warheads here that if N.D. have left the union we would have been the 4th largest nuclear power in the world behind only the rest of the U.S., Russia and China and then things changed with the dearming situation. The oil is here and the drilling is expanding from the west towards the middle of the state. We have a lot to deal with and hopefully things will work out for eveybody.

 

[Vikas]

Hydrofracking is big! They even have started sponsoring NPR! When a controversial organization starts paying to NPR, you know for sure they are extremely serious.

 

[Michael_P]

They also know many greenies listen to NPR. I'm not a greenie, but I do listen.

 

[Vikas]

That is what I am saying; greenies certainly don't like hydrofracking.