[WRE ADVISOR | BUSINESS]


There’s terrifi c potential here to take a business


and grow it. -Bob Reed,


Delta Rigging & Tools, North Dakota


As of April 2013, United States Geological Survey (USGS) released an updated oil and gas resource assessment for the Bakken Formation and a new assessment for the Three Forks Formation in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana. The assessments found that the formations contain an estimated mean of 7.4 billion barrels (BBO) of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil. The updated assessment for the Bakken and Three Forks represents a twofold increase over what has previously been thought.


“The North America Tapestry of Time and Terrain” shows the varying age of bedrock underlying North America. The position of Williston


Basin is circled. Map courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey


for the process. T at said, he also refutes fracking opponents’ water contamination concerns. While there are documented cases of blowouts and spills contaminating ground water, the idea that the water drilling below ground might somehow end up in aquifers seems highly unlikely. Contamination of this kind would require the breaching of the several thousand feet of rock that separate the shale from the aquifers, explains McGraw. “T is horizontal drilling is the best thing that’s ever happened,”


says Reed. “It’s so highly regulated, I have no concerns. If you took most industries in the US and regulated them like they’ve regulated us, they’d be out of business. People have seen documentaries on TV, but they don’t know how our industry works.” Michael Hughes agrees with Reed.


76 MAY-JUNE 2013 WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE


“Everybody is quick to jump on the news and say something is bad,” he says. “Yes, there are potential hazards from fracking. T ere are potential hazards from drilling. T ere are potential hazards from driving your car down the street. But, these guys work right alongside the EPA and new technologies are being developed all the time to make it even cleaner and safer.” While controversy and regulations will continue to


be a part of the conversation around hydraulic fracturing in North Dakota, business is booming, the recession is over, and America is dreaming in an RV in the back of a Walmart parking lot in a crowded little town called Williston. ❙


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