Low Cost Energy Gives North Dakota Manufacturers A Financial Edge

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting.

On a national scale, cheap natural gas retrieved through fracking is being credited with helping to resurrect the manufacturing industry.

On the state level, affordable energy means lower overhead costs for North Dakota manufacturers. Meanwhile, the state is looking for other benefits it could provide.

Many manufacturers in the state use natural gas to heat large buildings. Others, like Bobcat in Bismarck and Baker Boy and Steffes Corp. in Dickinson, also use it for production.

And this:

The projects include fertilizer plants that use natural gas to make their products, a natural gas-fired unit at the Heskett Plant, plans for a new MDU Resources natural gas pipeline and two diesel fuel refineries.

“Natural gas liquids provide a huge opportunity to add value to our state’s energy resources, The study will determine where the low hanging fruit may exist,” Ness said.

What should surprise North Dakotans is all this talk about natural gas and natural gas liquids. The Bakken is an oil play; NG and NGLs are by-products that used to be as popular as lutefisk among the operators. 

I personally think server farms in Fargo and fertilizer plants hold the most promise for North Dakota as far alternative industries go. 

The state certainly doesn't have the work force to manufacture small aircraft but one has to ask the question whether expanding and promoting pilot training at UND might be in the cards. A lot of oil millionaires in the state who now have the money and time to get the training, and there is a need for air transportation for oil-company and oil-service-company managers and roughnecks, across the entire Rocky Mountain oil sector: North Dakota north to Canada, and south to Oklahoma; west to Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado.