What Is An Oil Well Worth in Terms of Jobs? -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

About a week ago, I was looking for an article to answer the question, but never got around to completing the search. I have to thank "Don" for sending me the link, not evening knowing I was looking for this information.

How much is an oil well worth in terms of new jobs? You have to extrapolate the data below to get an idea of just the trucking end of the process:

For each new well drilled, approximately 1,200 truckloads of equipment and supplies are needed during the drilling phase and an additional 800 truckloads of product are hauled during the first year of production. With 2,000 new wells expected in 2011 that equates to 4 million trucks across roads in western North Dakota, Kari Cutting, Vice President of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, says.

$1 billion of infrastructure improvements was approved for western North Dakota by the North Dakota Legislature. “The combination of state and industry expenditures combine to make the Bakken possibly the largest development and construction project in the United States right now and likely the second largest in North America, behind the Alberta oil sands,” Cutting says.

With regard to investment, Cutting says:

The next three to five years will see continued growth, development, and further progress in the Bakken,” Cutting adds. “Nearly $4 billion will be invested in oil and gas pipelines, rail facilities, and natural gas processing plants, all of which will reduce truck traffic for moving product from the well sites.”

By the way, this story adds support to the contention by Oasis Petroleum that unconventional drilling is more like manufacturing than drilling.