BAKKEN NEWS


Bakken neighbors Continued from page 1


The unprecedented growth leaves


Portra happy, but wary. The 52-year-old native has lived


through two previous oil booms and busts. He remembers when crude prices plummeted in the 1970s and the drill- ers immediately dropped pipe and left town. But this boom feels different, Portra


said, because of all the infrastructure being built, including a proposed small refi nery over the state line near Trenton, N.D., where explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark once camped. “You don’t build a railroad siding for


short-term gain,” he said. “It costs really serious money.”


Somewhere to stay


Don’t chase the oil boom money or jobs unless you have a place to stay. Rents have doubled and tripled in the Bakken’s boomtowns. Hotel rooms are booked solid months


in advance, forcing travelers to drive on and on to Glendive or even Bismarck. Companies must rent or buy trailers or RVs and scramble for a place to park them. A parking spot with no water or sewer hookups in Froid costs $1,000 a month. For the fi rst time in its history, Bill-


ings-based Stockman Bank may have to provide housing for its workers in Sid- ney so the two loan offi cers being hired have a place to live. Century Companies Inc. of Lewis-


town has built and paved roads in east- ern Montana for nearly three decades, but this boom has doubled its oil fi eld business. “There are people from every state


now. They are swarming the place,” said Century president Tim Robertson, who has hired 30 more workers. The boom is spreading west along the


Hi-Line. “Wolf Point has never seen this ac-


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DickinsonWilliston


tivity. It’s crazy,” said Rick Isle, the city’s public works director. With 350 oil companies working the


Williston basin, the demand for services seems endless. ■ Double-Tree Inc., of Bozeman, is building a sewage treatment plant north of Tioga, N.D., and is talking to three eastern Montana cities about expanding their sewage lagoons. ■ Man camps have popped up at vir-


tually every turnoff or farm yard. ■ Blaine Rogers’ Door Bust’n Por- table and Septic Service in Sidney now delivers and maintains 428 toilets, fi ve times more than three years ago. ■ Sidney has three motels and is building three more. But before contrac- tors can start building the Microtel Inn & Suites, they have to build a dormitory for the builders. ■ High wages attract workers and


drive up pay at other businesses. Most shops along Sidney’s main drag are clos- ing early due to a scarcity of workers. ■ Since October, McDonald’s in


Sidney routinely closes its lobby, so the minimal staff can handle all the drive-up orders. ■ Hoogie’s Car Wash in Billings has seen its business triple. Industrial cleaning of tankers and oil


fi eld equipment now provides 75 per- cent of the work at Hoogie’s. Last year was the best in 31 years, said owner Don Haugan. By June of this year, he’d topped that record. An Illinois trucking friend told him


there are more trucks rolling through Williston, now than in downtown Chi- cago. “Casper (Wyo.) used to be the king


of the oil industry, but I think Billings serves that role now,” Haugan said. (Reporter Jan Falstad can be reached at 406-657-1306 or at jfalstad@billings- gazette.com.)


Thursday, January 5, 2012 ■ Page 7


JAMES WOODCOCK/ Lee News Service


TOP: Some oilfi eld workers hastily skirted a trailer as a hedge against fi erce winter storms in one of many “man camps” near Sidney, Mont., as the Bakken oil boom lures workers from all over the country into small North Dakota and Montana communities. BOTTOM: Dan Neiter, the geologist on the Continental Resources “Jane” drilling rig near Culbertson, pours over data as the driller starts turning a crucial curve two miles down to start drilling horizontally through the Bakken formation. Rig workers were searching oil between Sidney, Mont., and Culbertson, Mont.


Serving the Bakken


  


 


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