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Someone noted this list is quite a bit different than an earlier list from another source earlier this month. The difference in the list has to do with the size of the towns. In the earlier list, Williston did not make the cut due to size of the city; Fargo and Bismarck both made the cut.
This newest list from Forbes appears to be of towns with smaller populations.
The West Texas community of Pecos comes in at No. 2 on our list with a 23.2% increase in population to 13,783. Some of those people aren’t there voluntarily: The MSA is home to the Reeves County Detention Complex, a privately run inmate facility with a capacity of 3,760. In 2007, the complex entered into a contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to house up to 2,407 criminal aliens for at least four years.
Another factor in Pecos’ expansion: a boom in oil and gas drilling enabled by fracking.
“We’ve had 39 drilling rigs running at a time in the county, with motels running at 100% occupancy—and four new hotels built in three years,” says Bill Ogelsby, head of the Pecos Economic Development Corporation. Temporary residents who come for work sometimes bunk at hotels for months at a time, he says, which may have contributed to higher population counts.
Expanded oil drilling is also driving the economy in North Dakota—especially in small towns like Williston, which comes in at No. 6 on our list, where the population jumped by 14.6% to 22,398. The area’s unemployment rate is a shockingly low 0.9%, with a median income of $55,396.
Three towns listed as fast growing are in the Permian Basin, Pecos, TX, Andrews, TX and Hobbes, NM.
ReplyDeleteNew life has been breathed into the Permian thought to be pumped out after producing 30 billion barrels of oil since 1923. A couple of tight shale formation that are very promising that were over looked because of the inability to extract oil by the old conventional means are the Wolfcamp or Wolfberry and the Cline. Now like the Bakken/Three Forks that has all changed with horizontal drilling and fracturing. This has created a lot of excitement among E&P with leasing at a fevered pace. The rig count is up in the Permian so what was once thought to be dead or dying is new again.
This will be the real composition for the Bakken instead of the Niobrara although I don't think ether one has to worry about one doing the other in.
Since the beginning of this new era in oil and gas extraction, Texas's production has really increased. Very dramatic from just a few years ago.
I agree. I find it absolutely incredible how this has taken off so dramatically.
DeletePecos was worn out and run down. A sad shadow of its days when cantaloupe ruled. The hotels were in bad shape. Then boom.
ReplyDeleteIt is a long commute to Odessa, which is full too. So it needed the building boom for the oil boom. Boom boom.
Comfort suites @$179 Tuesday night. Not high for a boom.
Anon 1
Road trip! Maybe a year ago, or so, I rented a car from Enterprise at the San Antonio airport (I can walk from my apartment in San Antonio to the airport) and drove up to Odessa/Midland. I turned north too soon to see Pecos. I'm sorry now that I missed Pecos.
Delete$179/night. Wow. It is amazing what a boom will do for a small town.
For folks who have not been to Texas: it is amazing how big the state is. The last sign one sees on the interstate leaving San Antonio (on the northwest side of town): El Paso, 500 miles. Fort Stockton is always a welcome sight. I've made that trip from San Antonio to Los Angeles several times. I always leave about 4:00 p.m. to avoid the desert heat.
I did not know about the cantaloupe history. Fascinating.