North Dakota and the American Oil Boom

North Dakota and the American Oil Boom   

The Gist

For the first time in over thirty years the United States is producing enough oil and gas for export. Oil production is at an all-time high and has created 169,000 jobs nationwide, growing at a rate ten times that of overall employment. The United States is one of the few countries in the world that has the technology, know-how, and equipment (it has 60% of the world’s supply of drilling rigs) to use fracking to exploit its oil reserves. Property laws in the United States, which give property owners rights over what is beneath their land, create an incentive to drill. North Dakota sits on top of the largest contiguous oil field in the Lower 48. This has created unprecedented opportunities for the people of North Dakota (not to mention the thousands of mostly men who have arrived in the state since the boom). The growth has caused significant problems…of course. It really is like the Wild West: majority male, rampant prostitution, and increasing crime. Life can be brutal in the oilfields of North Dakota, but the possibility of striking it rich is so high that people keep taking the risk…and now you know the gist.