Great News!! As OilJobFinder.com reports, North Dakota's top oil regulator sent out a message the other day to the leaders of Williston: Get Ready. "This is going to come back pretty hard and pretty rapidly," Helms said told members of Williston’s Chamber of Commerce. "And we'll be back running to stay ahead of it." You can smell the desperate hope in his rhetoric...
It’s not a matter of if- it’s about to happen and there’s no stopping it. Oil prices are on the rebound finally. Oil reached its highest level it’s seen in the last 6 months just yesterday. It’s the light at the end of the tunnel we’ve all been waiting for. Get your resumes out, get your work gear out, things are about to get crazy again.
With oil prices climbing higher and higher we are about to see the oil patch fire back up. Drilling crews are going to kick it into high gear. Many companies will be entering back into the Bakken looking to make up lost time. Thousands of workers will be needed in every part of the oilfield.
OilJobFinder.com notes that according to Helms he’s projecting Williston will support 40,000 permanent oil jobs. This will put the towns population over 80,000. Right now estimates are Williston has about 30,000 residents. It’s time to make room for an in-flux of 50,000 workers. We are going to see Williston explode in population growth.
The industry is eager to get back to work. With the recent drop in oil prices things slowed down everywhere. It wasn’t just the oil companies that were hit, it was the domino effect which took a toll on everybody. With the drop in oil prices, oil companies were able to fine tune their production methods in North Dakota. The break even prices for drilling oil in North Dakota has plummeted. The oil companies don’t need oil prices to be very high anymore. They’ve figured out a way around it, just as everybody expected.
They fine tuned things to the point that wells are nothing like they once used to be. We’re talking about virtually erasing the initial decline in oil production. The wells they are drilling now are monsters, and the decline rates are dropping more and more with each new well drilled.
Oil companies are also seeing what is known as the halo-effect on wells. Now that there have been a substantial amount of wells put in, companies are starting to reap the rewards of multiple wells in a close spacing. When oil companies come back to an area that was previously drilled and punch a new well the old wells are benefiting from the newly fracked wells. The process is know as the halo-effect. Companies drill a new well, frack it with their new methods that are producing monster wells, wells big enough to make Saudi Arabia turn their heads in fear. The new wells being fracked stimulate the old wells boosting the old wells production numbers.
A factor in North Dakota’s favor is the cost to drill a well in the Bakken has decreased substantially. Helms, who met with several oil company CEO’s in Houston in February, said industry leaders say the Bakken is the No. 1 place they want to invest when the price of West Texas Intermediate oil is at least $60 a barrel. We are literally days away from all this happening. Are you ready to go back to work? Share this with your friends, North Dakota is going to need all the oil and gas workers it can get. Even when the prices were high for a long time, there still wasn’t enough people in North Dakota to handle all the jobs. The North Dakota Job Service reports that there are currently over 15,000 open jobs in the state with more being added everyday.
“I think we need to have in our minds that we’ve used this slow time to catch up on everything because it’s coming back and it’s going to come back with a rush,” Helms said.
The Williston area has been building nonstop to catch up to demand. Hotels have popped up all over the place. Thousands of new homes have been built. There’s still room for more housing and businesses to be built. This could be a great opportunity for somebody that wants to take part in the oil boom but not exactly work in the oilfield. Contractors are needed for every area of development. If you are in construction or run a construction company, you should pack your bags and head to North Dakota.
Former Williston Mayor Ward Koeser, among those in the audience, said a population of 80,000 was suggested by some developers several years ago as oil development began to ramp up.
"That number is in a lot of people’s minds,” Koeser said.
80,000 residents could even be on the low end when all is said and done. They are talking about building more refineries right in North Dakota. THat alone could create a huge influx of people. The population could very well shoot over 100,000+ people for all we know. Williston is growing fast and it will continue to grow for the next 30 years.
The good thing about the recent slowdown is that Williston will have expanded schools, improved roads, more housing, additional emergency response staff and other infrastructure to support the growth.
“If it happens as fast as he’s saying, I think we’ll be ready for it and it’ll be a great ride,” Koeser said.
What could temper the growth, however, is the availability of workers, Helms said.
“The economy has recovered in all the places people came from for this last spike,” Helms said. “Will they come back?”
Chamber President Scott Meske said Williston and other communities in the region are preparing for the next spike.
Ken Callahan, president of the Williston Basin chapter of the American Petroleum Institute, said the community won’t be playing catch-up when activity ramps up again.
“The good thing is we’ve already seen it, we’ve already learned from it,” Callahan said.
Williston is the main hub for oil activity in the state of North Dakota. Williston sits on the western edge of the state bordering Montana. There are great schools waiting for your kids to enter. Many new retail stores have come to the area. The town is really expanding and can handle all your shopping needs. Gone are the days of having to drive to a bigger town to get your supplies.
The town will only see more businesses being built as time goes on. Along with that will come additional housing. New homes will be built for many years to come. Ample opportunity exists for those looking to rent an apartment instead of buying a house. Many many new apartment buildings have went up in Williston and there are plans for many more to come.
Williston is also home to an all new rec center called The Williston A.R.C. With state of the art equipment it’s the largest gym in the area. There’s a full size olympic pool, four indoor tennis courts, batting cages, four basketball courts, an indoor track, a full blown inside water park, a golf simulator to keep your game fresh when the weather is bad, and many more great things that will have you coming back for more.
It’s about to get crazy again in North Dakota. It’s time to go to work. Get yourself ready and start making plans now. In our next post we will cover a bit more about Williston North Dakota. Share this post with your friends, share it everywhere. The oilfield is back baby!
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Of course, having said all that - oil inventories are still at record highs, demand expectations are tumbling once again, E&P companies are defaulting at a record pace, China's teapot refiners starting to slow at the margin, and as is obvious to all, no matter how cheap it is to re-ramp up wells, it will ultimately self-defeating as production increases will merely signal traders to dump the front-end of the curve (as commercials have heged out production further out, unimpressed at the rip off the February lows).
But - don't worry about that - it's time to pile in to Williston again! what could possibly go wrong.