It certainly sounds like the commissioners are doing their best to work with the local community and the oil industry on a very thorny problem.
This is part of the reasoning:
He said if more people were to bring their families, the shortage of workers in non-oilfield jobs could be addressed locally. Commission Chairman Dan Kalil questioned the possibility of that being a requirement.But in addition, it is my understanding that many crews work two weeks on, two weeks off. During the two weeks off, the workers fly back to their families in Texas. When it comes time to return to North Dakota, some prefer to stay home in Texas and not return to the oil patch in the Williston Basin. A drilling crew needs a full complement of workers, an experienced team, and when one member does not show up Monday for the beginning of the next two-week shift, significant challenges face the operator trying to stay on schedule.
Sounds like "they" need a focus group of man-camp residents to see what they might suggest.
Williston to challenge Fargo as North Dakota's largest city?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bigskybusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2046:billings-businesses-look-to-the-oil-patch&catid=29:montanabusiness&Itemid=114
It takes more people to drill an oil well, nowadays. Drilling a well takes 55 to 75 people, and once drilled, it takes eight people to maintain it over a 20-30 year period. Do the math — that’s what people who believe that Williston could grow to a city of some 100,000, are doing. Williston has already grown from 12,000 to 18,000 according to the last census, and is probably closer to 20,000, now.
I have said several times Williston city fathers should put together a team to study the transformation of Odessa-Midlands (Texas) back in the 50's (?). Population of Odessa is about 100,000 and Midlands is about 110,000.
ReplyDeleteGranted, the climate/remoteness of western North Dakota might be a bit of challenge but having said that, Calgary, Canada, is a huge city. And the climate is just as severe, and Calgary is pretty remote.
As folks have written to tell me, people will go where the jobs are.
Trying to force people to bring their families to a new area is crazy. Trying to force developers/man camps to provide temporary housing for families will never work. Let the market drive the housing situation and it will always work out. Tamper with it and it will create a mess.
ReplyDeleteI guess Williston can continue as they have been -- fairly austere man-camps, or look at what is being proposed for Arnegard:
ReplyDeletehttp://milliondollarway.blogspot.com/2011/07/innovative-proposal-for-new-housing.html