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Sunday, February 6, 2011

Record Construction in the Heart of the Bakken to Continue -- WIll Need Improved Infrastructure -- North Dakota, USA

It's too easy to breeze through yet another Bakken posting.

Williston, the heart of the Bakken, is not a very large city. In 2009, it was a busy year for the Bakken; the city of Williston issued 257 building permits. That's a huge number of permits for Williston.

But wow! In 2010, the city had a whopping 770 permits. I truly cannot fathom a city the size of Williston going from less than 300 permits in one year to almost 800 permits the following  year. That's essentially tripling the number of permits in one year. One wonders where all the carpenters, bricklayers electricians, plumbers, architects, building inspectors came from. 

Anyway, that's the ranting and raving. Here's the story.

Original Posting

Link here. Regional media so link will be broken soon.

Improved infrastructure will be needed for continued record construction.

Some projects mentioned in the article:
  • Oregon developer plans to construct a 72-unit apartment building in Watford City. Given the level of interest by developers, there could be considerably more housing built. 
  • More office openings in Watford City, but they would have to build because there's not much available
Statistics, for 2010 (2009 in parentheses) (some numbers rounded):
  • Williston: 770 permits; $106 million (257; $45 million)
  • Watford City: 157 permits (111)
  • Williams County: 230 permits; $27 million (more than double the permits issued in 2009)
  • Ray: 92 permits; $5 million (36; $0.6 million); cannot expand -- no sewer, water
  • Tioga:  95 permits (64 permits)
  • Stanley: 108 permits (about double from 2009)
  • New Town: 24 permits, $20 million
  • Parshall (aka "boomtown"): 13 permits; $0.6 million
  • Mountrail County: 100 permits (58 in 2009, which was already a very, very busy year)
Other comments and observations:
  • Area lumberyards and other material suppliers will find it difficult to ramp up any more, lack of manpower
  • Williston spokesmen: 2011 figures could be higher -- additional homes, commercial, and more hotels
  • Williston has $185 million in needed infrastructure improvements; $41 million considered urgent
  • ND governor is recommending $20 million in state infrastructure funding to assist Williston
Wow, to be 17 years old again!

2 comments:

  1. my question is this- what happens to all this housing when the rigging crews go away? I personally love ND, my family roots come from New Town, but peopple are not going to flock to the state just cuz'. Does "Boomtown" go back to small midwestern town With alot more empty buildings?

    ReplyDelete
  2. At the sidebar on the right, there is a link to "Basic Analysis of the Bakken Boom" -- assuming price of oil stays above $60; and EPA doesn't halt fracking: it will take until 2030 to drill out all the Bakken wells, and the wells will produce until 2100. This does not include the other formations (Three Forks, Tyler, or the legacy formations). So, yes, if there are no untoward political events, etc., the housing will be needed through about 2030 or 2040. I don't think folks have thought that far out yet.

    But, yes you are correct, at some point there will be a lot of empty buildings; my hunch is that a lot of these buildings going up quickly are not being built to last a hundred years. And then a new industry will come in: demolition teams.

    Seriously, I have no idea how this will play out, but the "Basic Analysis of the Bakken Boom" says the drilling will take us out to 2030, and production will continue to 2100.

    ReplyDelete

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