How Big Is the Bakken Impact On Williston?

The Williston Basin, the oil basin that includes the prolific Bakken formation, was named after Williston, North Dakota (USA).

Williston is located about as far west as possible and still be in North Dakota; it is 18 miles from the Montana border. It is often said that Williston is not at the end of the world, but you can see the end of the world from Williston. Yes, it's pretty remote.

Williston is the ninth-largest city in North Dakota, with about 13,000 people. Fargo, the largest has 100,000 and Bismarck has nearly 61,000 people. Fargo's metropolitan area population is considered to be about 200,000.

But the most recent data (first quarter, 2010) revealed that Williston was now number three in North Dakota in taxable sales and purchases, surpassing Minot and Grand Forks. Minot's population is about 37, 000 and the Grand Forks metropolitan area population was over 97,000 in the 2000 census.

Local folks expected taxable sales in Williston to exceed those of Minot, but they did not expect sales to exceed those of Grand Forks. I, too, find that incredible. Williston, with a population of 13,000, has sales that exceeds that of a city with almost 100,000.