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The Dakota Resource Council (DRC) out of Bismarck, ND has recently released a film on living with the oil boom. It's titled: This is Our Country: Living with the Wild West Oil Boom. The film was produced by D&N Cinematics LLC out of Bismarck, ND and narrated by Michael Farley. Per the DRC website, DRC Communications Director Sean Arithson said, "The film features everyday North Dakotans talking about how the chaotic development of the Bakken has affected lives and livelihoods." We often hear...
It started with an idea. Rick Harger of IVM Construction went to his supervisor with the idea to put out a challenge to everybody in the oil industry in the Bakken region. His supervisor loved the idea and told him to run with it. Now, only days later, over 15 major oil companies and dozens of other companies in the oil industry have accepted the challenge to see which company can collect the greatest amount (by weight) of non-perishable goods and other personal supplies during the ten day...
Sidney Mayor Bret Smelser has sat on the Oil and Gas Commission for seven years. In those 7 years, he has done impact talks half a dozen times. As soon as there is word that there might be a new play, people assume it's going to be a major play and then you start to hear "not in my backyard". Smelser would like some common sense put back into the process. At last week's Oil & Gas Commission meeting, he had the opportunity to try to put some common sense into a protest concerning an exploratory...
ONEOK Partners is the largest independent operator of natural gas gathering and processing facilities in the Williston Basin, with a natural gas gathering system of more than 6,000 miles and more than 3 million acres where production is dedicated to its systems. On November 19th, 2013 – ONEOK Partners, L.P. announced its plans to invest an additional $650 million to $780 million by the second quarter of 2016 to: 1. Build a new 200-million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) natural gas processing f...
Lightstream Resources, the second largest land owner in Saskatchewan's Bakken play expects reservoir recovery factors to improve from approximately 15 percent under primary methods to over 25 percent with natural gas as a flooding agent. An entry on the company's website says, "After laboratory analysis, computer simulations and early field experimentation, we believe that natural gas would be a more effective flooding agent in an EOR scheme as it would sweep the tight Bakken reservoir more...
The Montana Energy Forum held in Sidney last Wednesday and Thursday brought oil and gas development interests from Manitoba, Canada together with local businesses and officials. The group toured the area and visited various facilities connected to the oil field. They also had the opportunity to meet with representatives from local businesses and discuss mutual benefits of doing business together. At the luncheon held on Wednesday, local veterans and their spouses were special guests and were...
Based in Calgary, TransCanada Corporation, Canada's second largest pipeline company patiently awaits a ruling on the Keystone XL pipeline. The ruling is expected to be made by the end of the first quarter of 2014. The Keystone XL pipeline is a proposed 1,179 mile, 36 inch-diameter crude oil pipeline beginning in Hardisty, Alberta, Canada and extending south to Steele City, Nebraska. The pipeline will transport crude oil from Canada along with crude oil from producers in the Bakken region of Nort...
George Mitchell of Galveston, Texas passed away July 26, 2013. Mitchell earned a degree from Texas A&M University in petroleum engineering and then not only started an independent oil and gas company, Mitchell Energy & Development Corp, but he built it into a Fortune 500 Company. Mitchell had a passion for technology. When so many large oil and gas companies were interested in shale gas but could not get the gas to flow, or make the breakthrough in fracking, Mitchell spent ten years and $6...
While many states are turtle crawling, states that are fortunate enough to have a shale play such as North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana are hotfooting it. North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana are three states seeing the accelerated pace as their states’ economies are among the best in the nation. At the end of 2012, the unemployment rate in the Bakken was an utter 1.8%. The unemployment rate across the rest of North Dakota was just 3.2%, while South Dakota averaged 3.8% and Montana a...
A Watford City development will benefit from MBI Energy Services’ third contribution to the Housing Incentive Fund (HIF). The energy company contributed $250,000 to Wolf Run Village, an affordable housing project for essential service workers including teachers, law enforcement and medical personnel. “MBI strongly believes in supporting the people and the communities in which we operate,” said Jim Arthaud, the energy company’s CEO. “Our roots are in Western North Dakota, and we want to see this...
Compressed natural gas, also known as CNG, powers more than 12 million vehicles on the road today. According to GE, only about 250,000 of these vehicles are being used in the United States. Since 2000, the U.S. has shown a steady increase of approximately 3.7% per year, while the global rate climbs at over 30% per year. However, as gasoline prices continue to rise, American interest in CNG is also rising. Production of CNG Most natural gas comes from three types of wells: oil wells like the...
Exhibitors and attendees at the TRAC Energy Expo- 2013 in Billings, MT will have the opportunity to learn about the logistical challenges and economic opportunities the Bakken job boom presents on Tuesday, November 5th at 9 a.m. MST at the Holiday Inn Grand and Montana Convention Center. Arnie Sherman, Executive Director of the Montana World Trade Center and President of Global Development Services, reports on the results of an on-the-ground study that identifies needs in the region and outlines business and investment opportunities. The...
In 2007 Jon McCreary laid it all on the line by selling everything he had and borrowing every penny he could to invest in the oilfield service business, JMAC Resources. Over the past six years JMAC has went through many changes and is now a very strong, well respected heavy civil and energy industry construction service company which holds a deep value in building relationships within their community. McCreary and JMAC Resources employees honor the community where they live and work. In doing...
Attorney General Tim Fox announced today that Montana has joined four other states protesting the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) re-proposed rule to regulate hydraulic fracturing operations on federal and Indian lands. In a letter to U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, the Attorneys General of Alabama, Alaska, Montana, Oklahoma, and West Virginia strongly assert that the BLM cannot justify a need for new federal regulations and requirements, which will duplicate existing state programs. “The BLM would be hard pre...
The Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation hosted their 9th annual Teachers Workshop on Oil & Gas Resources at MSUB in Billings last month during the week of June 24th. Forty two teachers from across Montana, predominantly in Math and Science, spent a week on campus to attend workshops covering everything from geology, to hydraulic fracturing and drilling, to refining. This year represented the largest group of teachers to attend since the first workshop was offered, affording educators a...
Founded in late 2008, Bismarck based company, Blaise Energy is working hard to evaluate, test and deploy new forms of distributed gas processing. In other words, they are taking the energy from flares and converting it at the flaring location into more usable forms of energy - whether that be converting it to electricity to deliver back into the electrical grid, running the well site operations, or capturing the NGLs and trucking them off the site. Blaise Energy owner, Mark Wald, feels America...
Oil pipeline leaks are of concern to everyone. However, a small leak discovered recently by farmer Jerry Satra was taken care of quickly and efficiently. Satra discovered the oil on Saturday, July 27 while picking rock. The initial area was small, only 4 – 5’ in diameter. He notified Ray Kordonowy at XTO Energy who had a crew out on Sunday to investigate. Their digging revealed a leak in the pipeline belonging to Tesoro, and Monday, Tesoro was on site removing contaminated dirt and rep...
Earthstone Energy, Inc., based in Denver, Colorado, recently paid a $6,335 penalty to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for failing to register oil and gas wells in Richland and Sheridan Counties as sources of air pollution and for failing to install vapor emission controls on two wells. Registration of the thousands of oil and gas wells in Montana and vapor controls are necessary so that DEQ can limit the amount of pollutants that are released into the atmosphere. Larry Alheim of the DEQ Enforcement Division said that in...
Concerned about the potential of water contamination, many Americans have voiced their opinions and concerns about hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking. This concern is leading the U.S. towards waterless fracking. Is it possible to drill dry? The fracking process is a technique where millions of gallons of water are typically mixed with sand and chemicals and then injected at an extremely high pressure into a wellbore to create fractures in the rock formations - making space for the...
With cries of “Beep beep, toot toot. Hey, Exxon get off that loot,” more than 50 Yellowstone County citizens rallied recently at Coulson Park in Billings to tell ExxonMobil to pay a $1.7 million dollar fine for spilling 63,000 gallons of crude oil into the Yellowstone River two years ago. Members of the Northern Plains Resource Council, National Wildlife Federation, Montana Conservation Voters Yellowstone Chapter, Yellowstone Valley Citizens Council, and the Montana Laborers Union said Exxon needs to pay the fine levied by the U.S. Dep...
Longtime “Landman” Dan Clancy has been helping to bring mineral owners together with oil and gas producers since his twenties. His job, like all landmen, begins after a petroleum engineer and a geologist outline an area of interest. Depending on the size of the area, one project can keep a landman occupied for some time. For Dan, and several others in the field, the Bakken formation in the Williston Basin has added years to his career. Clancy, a Montana native, first became interested in the...
ONEOK Partners along with the North Dakota Public Service Commission has announced the building of the new 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) natural gas processing plant near Watford City. This facility, Garden Creek III, will be adjacent to ONEOK’s Garden Creek I plant and will be located on the same 80-acre parcel where the company is currently building another natural gas processing plant, Garden Creek II. The expected cost of the Garden Creek III plant and its related i...
Mitchells Oilfield Service has been an oil field service provider in the Williston Basin and the Bakken Formation for over 30 years. Employing over 500 people throughout their 7 locations, Mitchells holds a strong footprint which allows them to serve customers in over a 6500 square mile radius of North Dakota and Montana. In order to be competitive and to provide services required by their customers, Mitchell’s continues to upgrade their equipment with the latest, most innovative technologies a...
Bad credit can affect every aspect of your life: from applying for a loan, filling out an application to get in to a rental property, applying for a credit card and in today’s world it can even determine if you get a job or not. Tony Baca and his team at Continental Credit will give you and your credit history the personal attention it deserves to get you on the road to credit recovery. Continental Credit is a full service credit correction company based out of Denver, Colorado with a n...
Pick up the Patch is a community-wide effort to clean up debris left behind once the winter snow melts in the Watford City and surrounding areas. It’s a great opportunity for people and businesses to come together and show their community support and a great opportunity to meet your neighbors. This year’s ‘Pick up the Patch’ will begin on Saturday, June 1st and continue throughout the week to enable those people or businesses that are unable to help on a weekend but are willing to help, do so. The Civic Center in Watford City will be the che...
