Effects Of The Bakken Felt As Far West As Kalispell, MT -- West Of The Rockies; A "Booming Industry"

The Billings Gazette is reporting:

Kalispell native Mike White’s construction business is booming.

That’s because White, the president of Nelcon Inc., took the majority of his operation to the Bakken oil fields three years ago to offer his services to communities there overflowing with workers.

Last year, Nelcon supplied more than 10 million tons of “aggregate reserves” like sand and gravel for construction jobs in the area.

“That fuels our business,” White said, noting Nelcon has done a host of construction jobs, including highway projects, housing developments and just finished building a new airport in Sidney.

It's been long forgotten but many of the construction workers who put up all the housing (temporary and permanent) in the Bakken were from Idaho, even farther west than Kalispell, MT. 

Also, from the article, it looks like Williston's executive director of economic development is also trying to redefine the activity:

Tom Rolfstad, executive director of Williston (N.D.) Economic Development Corp., told summit attendees that modest estimates show drilling could last another 25 years. Once drilled, wells in the Bakken have had an “extraordinary” success rate of nearly 100 percent.

“It’s an industry, not a boom,” Rolfstad said.

Now the “Bakken halo effect” is spreading across the country due to a severe need in the Bakken for everything from 50,000 rail cars to help haul oil to ports to skilled workers to build dozens of transformer stations across the area to bedding for the so-called “man camps.”

“We need help, we need manpower and we need intelligence,” Rolfstad said.

I get a kick out of folks trying to define a boom. I addressed that some time ago. I honestly don't know what the definition of a boom is.

I do know that North Dakota has had an oil and gas industry since 1951, and I would think that the activity now is a tad more than what it was in the 60's, 70's, 80's, or 90's.

Perhaps the best description: an industry that is booming. Or a "booming industry."

That story of a $70 million, 5-year project in Minneapolis, earlier today, certainly suggests the Bakken is still "booming" even if it's not a boom.  I know The Atlantic Monthly folks have declared the "Bakken boom" over.