My Tagline: "... The Bakken Never Fails To Amaze Me" -- Kathy Neset -- July 26, 2015; North Dakota Moving One Million Bbls Of Crude Oil Daily

Williston Wire headlines:

Employment triples in core oil counties.

As pundits and public sentiment have declared the end of the Bakken Boom, the 2014 Annual Employment and Wages data released on June 2, 2015 reveal that employment has tripled or nearly so in the four core oil and gas producing counties since the beginning of the boom in 2006. Employment growth throughout western North Dakota was largely driven in four industry segments including Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction; Transportation and Warehousing; Construction; and Real Estate and Rental and Leasing. Professional and Technical Services as well as Accommodation and Food Services were two other industries that contributed significant growth during the period.

Bakken oil play here to stay.  Link here:

The petroleum industry is one of the largest basic-sector industries in North Dakota. The economic effects are felt statewide, making the industry one of the key forces of North Dakota’s economy. That was the universal message being given by the four featured speakers at last week’s seventh Annual Bakken Rocks CookFest event in Alexander.

The four featured speakers included Ron Ness with the North Dakota Petroleum Council, Kathy Neset with Neset Consulting, Justin Kringstad with the North Dakota Pipeline Authority, and Alison Ritter with the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources.

“What is happening here in North Dakota never fails to amaze me,” said Ness. “What we need to continue educating people on, and not just in McKenzie County, but the whole state and the entire country, is energy. We also need to show the significance and the ramifications of what a million barrels of oil a day means to us, our state, our country, and the world.”

In April, North Dakota surpassed one million barrels of daily oil production for the first time, putting the state in an exclusive group of only a few countries, states, provinces, and oilfields ever to do so. As of 2014, there were only 17 countries that could produce one million barrels per day or more. And only five states were producing at least one million bopd (barrels of oil per day) at one time including Alaska, California, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Texas.

But only Texas and North Dakota are currently producing more than one million barrels per day.

“One million barrels means two things,” said Ness. “First, it means that we have $50 million per day of economic activity. Second, the state gets to collect $11 million per day in oil and gas extraction and production taxes. And currently, there are only 19 countries in the world that produce that much. North Dakota is a top world producer, and North Dakota is providing energy security.”

One million barrels of oil production per day meets the needs of 75 percent of our nation’s average daily imports from Saudi Arabia, 13 percent of our nation’s total daily imports, three times the fuel needed by the entire U.S. military per day, and 11 times the fuel needed by the U.S. Navy per day.

The industry’s economic impact has grown by 750 percent since 2005, keeping pace with the 780 percent increase in oil production since that time. This represents a 303 percent growth in total jobs supported by the industry since 2005 and a 992 percent increase in direct jobs. Which means that in 2013, there were 55,137 direct jobs and 26,403 secondary jobs.

Construction remains on track at new Williston High School; to open in time for 2016 - 2017 schoo lyear. That's not this school year, but the next school year.

Main Street construction in Williston continues; will be complete soon.

Construction begins on new Middle School in Dickinson. 

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Perseverance

I was putting together the post above while watching Muscle Shoals on DVD for the umpteenth time. I happened to be watching the turning point of Aretha Franklin's career while formatting the spot on the "Bakken Oil Play Here To Stay. "

I guess you can be a "Negative Nelly" or a "Debbie Downer" like The Dickinson Press or you can be an eternal optimist and just press on.

Helen Keller was from Muscle Shoals.

Ode To Billie Joe, Bobbie Gentry