In North Dakota’s Oil Patch, a Humbling Comedown

Business News/Analysis, Funding/Financing/Investing, North Dakota, Opinions

May 19, 2016

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by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters) The fracking party is over, and a quiet desperation has descended on the state’s once-booming communities and the thousands of people who were drawn to them. — … But the price drop quickened, due in part to a supply glut from the 1.2 million barrels of oil North Dakota was pumping each day.

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“My business was decimated,” said Van Assche, 29 years old. He prays for an oil-price jump, “but now it’s very quiet.”

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The pain for much of last year was mitigated as aggressive price hedges and similar maneuvers kept the industry profitable. But those tactics have stopped working.

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Those who haven’t packed up and left the Bakken are facing a new reality of smaller budgets, fewer residents and the physical detritus of a building boom that left behind hundreds of empty apartments.

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Continental and others have stopped fracking altogether in North Dakota. Statewide, there are only eight crews fracking new wells for the few companies still willing to pay for the service.

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Politicians have taken to a common refrain that the oil price drop could actually be a good thing for the Bakken region by offering a chance to recover from the excesses of the boom. “Williston is still open for business,” said Shawn Wenko, head of the Williston Economic Development office, a city agency charged with diversifying the economy.

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Staff at the state agency JobService ND who spent the past five years scrambling to help fill jobs now find themselves busy with unemployment insurance applications. The agency hosted a Williston job fair in early April for 375 jobs. More than 1,250 applicants showed up. READ MORE

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