Human Interest Story on Harold Hamm in the Billings Gazette

Link here.

Continental Resources helped touch off the Bakken oil boom nearly a decade ago when the Elm Coulee field northwest of Sidney was developed. Hamm still refers to Montana as the birthplace of the Bakken. Much of the oil activity moved east into North Dakota in ensuing years.

Geology has a lot to do with the rigs moving east. But activity is picking back up in Montana, with about 20 rigs operating, Hamm said.

The following is an interesting observation:

Gov. Brian Schweitzer said he and Hamm first met during negotiations for the Keystone XL pipeline. Producers in North Dakota were frustrated because pipeline developers didn't have much interest in transporting North Dakota crude.

"We had the largest field found in the world found in the past 40 years, and yet it's still not served by a major pipeline," Hamm said.

I've never really thought about that much, but when folks look back on the development of the largest continuous oil reservoir found in North America in 40 years, they will marvel at the hodge podge way the Bakken was put together, everything from man-camps to widened highways to Enbridge pipelines.

And, so far, in the big scheme of things, despite all my negative comments over the past year, NoDaks should be complemented on how well they've done. It's really very impressive when one considers that there were probably very few Harvard MBA's who were involved in the planning or the process. The Bakken was probably blessed by the fact that the president never visited.  Santorum's short Tioga visit is probably about as much any NoDak would like to see federal government involvement or interest.