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.  

Midland, Saudi America

Midland, Saudi America   

The Gist

The Midland/Odessa area of west Texas is booming. The oil boom that the United States is experiencing is brought to you courtesy of something called fracking. Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) is the use of high-pressure water and chemicals underground to break up shale rock and release the oil and gas trapped inside. The process is expensive and raises the ire of environmental groups. Although the price of oil continues to fall, the oil boom that has made Midland the “Dubai of Texas” is not likely to end any time soon. Midland has the lowest unemployment rate in the country and the population is growing at 4.6% per year (the overall Texas rate is 1.6%). Plans are being made to build the tallest building between Los Angeles and Houston. All this growth is creating an inflated housing market more like DC than a city of 150,000 and stretching the city’s infrastructure to the brink. However, city officials know that the boom might quickly become a bust when oil prices come down. Longtime residents remember ‘Black Friday’ (October 14, 1983) when the largest bank in the region collapsed after oil priced bottomed out, starting a domino effect that transformed a once booming Midland into a ghost town…and now you know the gist.