Nice Article on Water For Fracking -- Human Interest Story -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Nice story on the water haulers in the Bakken. I believe this is about how Harold Hamm (CLR/Founder and CEO) started out in the oil business in Oklahoma three or four decades ago.

It's a regional link, so unfortunately, it's likely to be broken soon. Enjoy it while you can. From the McKenzie County Farmer.

It takes as much as one million gallons of water to frac a single Bakken oil well. Frac water is freshwater that is used to pressurize and fracture oil-bearing formations to increase permeability and enhance the flow and recovery of oil.

Frac water is typically transported in 7,500 to 8,000-gallon tanker trucks from a freshwater well to the oil well location, so it takes at least 125 tanker loads per well. It’s easy to see that getting water to a well site can be a time-consuming effort, and if trucks are waiting in line for hours, like they were last Thursday in Watford City, it can be frustrating for the truck driver as well as the oil company.

Oil companies typically send trucks to the closest water source, and last Thursday it was easy to see that Watford City was the closest source for many drivers, as there were 25 waiting in line to fill their tanks.
“I’ve been waiting for three hours and I have about another hour till it’s my turn,” says Alan Barth, who has contracted his truck to Missouri Basin Well Service. “I do get paid by the hour, so that makes it a little easier waiting in line. But it is still frustrating because I want to be productive for the company.”