Man Camps Gain Ground In The Bakken -- WSJ

Link here. The lede:

Target Logistics, a Boston-based builder and operator of dormitory-style housing, recently landed a nearly $30 million contract to provide lodging for hundreds of oil-field workers in North Dakota over the next three years. The deal is the latest example of rising demand for professionally managed "man camps," sprawling barracks that house mostly male workers at American and Canadian oil sites.

A few years ago, many North American energy companies needing places to house their expanding workforces operated their own man camps or gave the business to upstart operators. But after complaints that these barracks were becoming active markets for prostitution and illegal drugs, some companies decided to turn the business over to professional companies like Target Logistics that not only house and feed the employees, but also monitor their activities during off hours.

Target Logistics declined to identify its customer in the recent North Dakota deal, saying only that it is "one of the largest independent nonintegrated crude-oil and natural-gas companies in the U.S."

That narrows it down to one. 

There are so many story lines (and some private notes) but I am pushed for time, so it may have to wait.

Coupled with news earlier this week, this is why I posted the new poll asking whether one thought we would see 200 active rigs in North Dakota this week.

Memo to self: send note to The Atlantic Monthly: the Bakken boom is alive and well.