My Math Might Be Wrong -- April 19, 2015

According to wiki:

The North Dakota state government receives through severance taxes 11.5 percent of the gross value of all oil produced. 

In addition to severance taxes, the state of North Dakota owns extensive mineral rights, which are leased by competitive bidding.

But for purposes of this discussion, let's just remember the 11.5 percent of gross value of all oil produced.

The state is producing in excess of one million bbls/day.

At $30/bbl, one million bbls day x 11.5% = $3.45 million / day for the state.

Disclaimer: I often make simple arithmetic errors.

Hold that thought: $3.45 million / day at $30 oil.

The StarTribune is reporting:

After a six-year epic oil boom that has transformed both the economy of North Dakota and the lives of its people — sending unemployment to record lows and development and budget surpluses to record highs — the drop in prices is beginning to alter the landscape here. 

Half the rigs have been idled, costing thousands of oil workers their jobs with more layoffs likely to come. 

Here in Williston, the epicenter of the boom, there is little panic. Officials say they welcome the chance for their city, the fastest-growing small city in America for the past four years, to catch its breath after years of breakneck change. 

“We grew so fast, so quickly,” said Shawn Wenko, economic development director for Williston, home to the nation’s highest rents, lowest unemployment rates and largest municipal rec center. 

“Obviously, we have some catch-up to do.” In cities across the oil patch, residents are waiting to see whether this is a slowdown or a bust. There are still billions of barrels of oil locked tight in the shale below. 

Every day, a million barrels of oil still pump to the surface. In the vacuum left by downed exploration rigs, communities are counting on a continued flurry in construction, small business start-ups and — regional planners hope — manufacturing as they rush to build homes, schools, roads and sewer lines to serve the new North Dakotans who now call the oil patch home. The ones officials hope will stay.

And note this, from Chuck Wilder, owner and operator of the best little bookstore west of the Mississippi until you get to Powell's bookstore in Portland, Oregon.

Chuck Wilder, whose grandmothers were in Williston for its founding in 1887, has watched oil busts hollow out his hometown before — first in the 1950s and again in the 1980s. This, he said, doesn’t feel anything like a bust. 

Wilder, a part-time municipal judge who owns Books on Broadway, a colorful, quirky downtown bookstore and coffee shop, said the downturn hasn’t affected sales. 

In fact, sales so far this year are better than a year ago, when the boom was in full swing. 

Up the street, construction crews hammer at a half-finished complex of mixed-use retail, office and upscale apartments. Another block down Broadway, oil workers crowd into the new sushi bar, Basil, for lunch. 

The oil deposits below Williston are so rich, it’s still profitable for companies to drill here, even with oil prices cut in half.

I think half of the best part of my book collection that doesn't come from Amazon came from Books on Broadway.  And hopefully I will be buying a few more in about ten days.

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1st, 2nd, and 4th Generations

My father, sister, and one nephew/two nieces.

I assume generation #3 (mother of the children) took the picture.
Chapel, First Lutheran Church
Williston, North Dakota