WWTBAM Bored

Just got back from a 3-day bus tour of the North Dakota oilfields. I have followed the happenings there very close, from afar, so I was intellectually prepared for it-but to actually see it-Holy Frickin' Crap. If you know a 25 YO who can't find a job-send them up there.

1) There is anecdote after anecdote and statistic after statistic about the pace of growth and change there-but the one that really struck me was from a hospital person from Watford City, which is the seat of McKenzie County. McKenzie County is a Rhode Island sized chunk of ground and had 2000 Census (Pre-Boom) population of 6,360 people.

She is involved in hospital fundraising and she said that they counted over 3,000 oil-related firms (trucking, well services, etc) with a presence in McKenzie County. They can't know for sure, because it changes every day.

2) Prior to the trip, I have said that it is like a war-zone -sucking in men(and women) and materials from across the country and even the world. There is a decent-sized presence from the Congo, of all places. We stayed in a "man-camp" one night and our cook at breakfast was from Virginia. The camp manager and her husband were from Mississippi and her assistant was from Arkansas.

Others from our bus talked to oil-workers at camp and they were from Minnesota, Michigan, Maryland and Denver. Lots of Idaho people throughout the patch as well.

3) Positivity is ubiquitous there. It was fun to see positive people, who are excited and proud of what they are doing. They work hard and some don't stick it out, but it is a positive place to be. As one guy said on the bus "Negativity is contagious, but so is positivity" and there is a lot of positivity in the Bakken. It seems like a lot of the higher-up younger guys are starting companies (to do whatever) on the side

4) The workers described it as the "Gold Rush" of our time. I had the Spocklette (13 YO) along and I told her when you are 90 years old, you will remember that you saw this. She might go work up there, but who knows.

5) My evil plan worked. She is now interested in petro leum engineering. (We have been trying to show her some direction towards the STEM area.) Our favorite speaker was a young petroleum engineer who wasn't a polished public speaker, but he was fascinating.

6) Am I a bad daddy?-The trip consisted of a pretty intense schedule of riding around in a bus looking at oil sites and listening to a procession of speakers (mostly in public service-but some oil industry guys and a local rancher who has been affected (positively, and negatively) by the boom. The big takeaway from him was that the boom has allowed his kids to find work in the area and they don't have to leave.

Anyway, the Spocklette describes the trip as "Fun". Not sure most 13 YO would like it-but there you are.

We lost a trailer in Watford a week or so ago. Our guy managed to get out of it and to a safe place just before that tordado took it away.

We have almost 800 employees up there.

BackInTex wrote:We lost a trailer in Watford a week or so ago. Our guy managed to get out of it and to a safe place just before that tordado took it away.

We have almost 800 employees up there.

Interesting, the hospital people talked about that. They said one big difference between today and previous oil times is that most of their injuries are now vehicular and not occurring on the rig.

We had an interesting (odd?) mix of people on the trip. About half were retirees who wanted to see it, a few company guys looking for opportunities in the Bakken, some eastern ND economic development types and One VERY Liberal California lady.

California Lady made her views very well known and asked lots of controversial/confrontational questions of the speakers. It worked out-as I believe she had an open mind and seemed to moderate her views somewhat as she saw it and talked to people-oddly enough, her focus was not on Fracking, but on everything else. There was only one time that I thought she got out of line and rudely pursued a line of questions with a speaker that was not the right topic for that speaker.

My main problem with her is that it was pretty obvious that she generally viewed ND people (she grew up there and left) as lower than dog crap on the bottom of her shoes.

Spock wrote:My main problem with her is that it was pretty obvious that she generally viewed ND people (she grew up there and left) as lower than dog crap on the bottom of her shoes.

Just the bankers.

Spock wrote:Just got back from a 3-day bus tour of the North Dakota oilfields. I have followed the happenings there very close, from afar, so I was intellectually prepared for it-but to actually see it-Holy Frackin' Crap. If you know a 25 YO who can't find a job-send them up there.

Fixed that for you.

earendel wrote:

Spock wrote:Just got back from a 3-day bus tour of the North Dakota oilfields. I have followed the happenings there very close, from afar, so I was intellectually prepared for it-but to actually see it-Holy Frackin' Crap. If you know a 25 YO who can't find a job-send them up there.

Fixed that for you.

I don't care who you are-that's funny right there.

The bad thing about the Bakken that seems to unite everybody (left, right, Greenie whatever) is the tremendous amount of gas being flared-an absolute waste-and it so visible. They say 30% of the gas is being flared which is caused by a lack of infrastructure to handle it-but given all the flares we saw, I suspect it is more than that. The guys that work the rigs told us the flares sound like a jet engine.

We were told by a non-green type that the flare from one well flares enough gas in 24 hours to heat a house for 60 years. They have to get a handle on that. I suspect BIT's firm probably is helping in that area.

Our family is heading to Yellowstone/Glacier later this summer and me and the Spocklette have added driving through oil country at night (to see the flares at night) to our list for the trip.

My personal favorite event from the trip was when an oil guy took us from Williston and onto an active rig pad. We had to stay in the bus-but this was not a planned event for the trip. However, that was not the best part of this thing. About 6 very attractive young ladies from the Williston Tourism Bureau (or whatever) joined us on the bus, because they wanted to learn about it too.

The Spocklette has always looked after her mom's interest and she hits me when I mention that part of the trip.

Spock wrote:

earendel wrote:

Spock wrote:Just got back from a 3-day bus tour of the North Dakota oilfields. I have followed the happenings there very close, from afar, so I was intellectually prepared for it-but to actually see it-Holy Frackin' Crap. If you know a 25 YO who can't find a job-send them up there.

Fixed that for you.

I don't care who you are-that's funny right there.

The bad thing about the Bakken that seems to unite everybody (left, right, Greenie whatever) is the tremendous amount of gas being flared-an absolute waste-and it so visible. They say 30% of the gas is being flared which is caused by a lack of infrastructure to handle it-but given all the flares we saw, I suspect it is more than that. The guys that work the rigs told us the flares sound like a jet engine.

We were told by a non-green type that the flare from one well flares enough gas in 24 hours to heat a house for 60 years. They have to get a handle on that. I suspect BIT's firm probably is helping in that area.

Our family is heading to Yellowstone/Glacier later this summer and me and the Spocklette have added driving through oil country at night (to see the flares at night) to our list for the trip.

My personal favorite event from the trip was when an oil guy took us from Williston and onto an active rig pad. We had to stay in the bus-but this was not a planned event for the trip. However, that was not the best part of this thing. About 6 very attractive young ladies from the Williston Tourism Bureau (or whatever) joined us on the bus, because they wanted to learn about it too.

The Spocklette has always looked after her mom's interest and she hits me when I mention that part of the trip.

The Bakken has now replaced Las Vegas as the brightest light at night as seen from space. That's got to be spooky, given how little development there is anywhere near.

mrkelley23 wrote: The Bakken has now replaced Las Vegas as the brightest light at night as seen from space. That's got to be spooky, given how little development there is anywhere near.

As we were riding home yesterday and getting a couple of hundred miles from the oil patch-every time I saw a light or red sign or whatever out of the corner of my eye_ I would quickly mentally categorize it as a flare-which should give you some idea of the ubiquity of flares in the Bakken.

I mentioned that to the Spocklette and she started laughing as she was doing the same thing.

Spock wrote:We were told by a non-green type that the flare from one well flares enough gas in 24 hours to heat a house for 60 years. They have to get a handle on that. I suspect BIT's firm probably is helping in that area.

Yes we are! In several ways, but the coolest is the micro-grid. We are developing a business to rent generating equipment that runs off of whatever crap they don't want to ship to a refinery and our company builds out the relocatable grid. This solves a serious problem in the oil field, a lack of affordable power. Most power is generated off of diesel generators. So diesel is being trucking in while gas is flared off and wasted.

The other way is what we do there, build gathering systems, tanks, and pipelines.

mrkelley23 wrote: The Bakken has now replaced Las Vegas as the brightest light at night as seen from space. That's got to be spooky, given how little development there is anywhere near.

What is that claim based on? I couldn't confirm or debunk it, but this photo suggests otherwise. The article does confirm that the Bakken outshines Las Vegas in its demand for strippers and hookers.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/01 ... images-is/

So many things to say and so little time Off to a bridge tourney in Bismarck this morning.

My opinion, others may vary.

Yes, flaring is an issue but hopefully flaring will be reduced quite a bit in the future. Currently the oil well is allowed to flare up to one year from completion. The state has ALWAYS given exemptions going forward so they continue to flare away, but soon the state will require a plan at permitting time and will not give exemptions(after 1 year) anymore--so they say. If BiT's company or any other company can come up with the capturing of the gas so there will not be excessive flaring, invest in that company.

Here is a blog with lots of info. It is run by a high school classmate of mine--a retired Air Force doc. He does it just for fun since he grew up in Williston.


http://themilliondollarway.blogspot.com/

This is the originalreport that got me thinking about it. That, plus some apocryphal reports from Chris Hadfield while he was on the ISS, seemed to support the idea. NASA has never made it official, of course, for what I would consider obvious reasons.

Setting flaring aside for now-we were told several times that oilfield wages average $90,000 a year. This would be the blue-collar type stuff.

$22 an hour was mentioned several times as retail/service type pay. Kusch could obviously provide more background there.

I read "Million Dollar Way" every day and have for years-I check it every time I am on the computer.

I am essentially on the same page as Bruce is on almost everything. I have corresponded with him some on his "Million Dollar Literature" blog and also on Million Dollar Way. Our tastes in non-fiction often are close to the same, However, we don't share the same taste in Fiction.

When I speak of flaring as an issue-I consider whatever my opinion is as irrelevant.

There were 50 people on the bus(Mostly from eastern ND and mostly of a pro-resource extraction bent) and flaring just seemed to leave a bad taste in people's mouths.

As Million Dollar Way has pointed out several times-about 3% of the output of a well is flared and he views it totally as a non-issue. There were times I thought of pointing that out-but you can't fight City Hall-so to speak.

Admittedly, as I reflect on the trip, some of my read of the bus's political thoughts of flaring may be driven by the liberal California lady who drove the discussion in that direction quite often. Essentially, she wouldn't let it go.

One evening during her questioning/opining on another topic-a lady at my table whispered-"You can tell she's from another state." I cracked up.

On a lighter note-My youngest son is a husky young man who will be entering 6th Grade this fall. The natural strength in that kid is impressive and it will be interesting to see him develop.

We have been teasing him that he would fit right in with the oil guys and that he should go work there this summer to make some money.

The gist is that he could show up for 6th Grade driving a brand-new Ford F350 and if the school gave him any guff over it-he could just say "It's paid for."

The scary thing about that kid is that people we barely know have stories about him. He is an 11YO who can't run around without us and we can only shake our heads at the impression he has made on the world. Everybody we know has a "Youngest Spock" story.

I tell him if he showed up at school in a coat and tie-within a week-he would own the school.

On a more serious note-"Li'l Spock" is 16 and just finished 10th Grade. I would not be opposed to (Mrs. Spock and I have been on him this weekend about this) him working in the oil patch for a couple of years to make some money to pay for college. It would make a man of him.

The Spocklette and I tease him that we signed him up for starting work in the Bakken on June 1, 2016.

I am afraid his vision for working during college consists of working at FootLocker(and only Footlocker).