

On The Plains, The Rush For Oil Has Changed Everything - tokenadult
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/29/264912750/on-the-plains-an-oil-boom-is-transforming-nearly-everything

======
girvo
Heh it's exactly like the rural towns that get turned into mining towns here
in Australia. I've worked as a labourer out there with my dad (he's a civil
engineer, works on the roads out in these towns). They start as a tiny rural
area, developed into a boom-bust town that caters to the fly-in-fly-out
workers who come in to work for 6 figures. Then the mine closes, and the town
is left as a shadow of its former self, but with so much extra real estate,
empty shops, and closed bars (apart from one or two). It's curious to watch.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Seems like there is a design project waiting to be done for dynamic
infrastructure.

~~~
eric-hu
You mean burning man?

~~~
ChuckMcM
Excellent point, Burning Man does share a lot of the properties of a booming
mining town :-)

------
w1ntermute
That animated GIF near the bottom of the article is super creepy.

~~~
dilap
I have to say, I really dig 'em both (there's another in the article
headline). A very unique effect.

~~~
learc83
They're called cinemagraphs, here's a link:
[http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/cinemagraph/](http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/cinemagraph/)

------
chantech
The salaries in the oil sands in Canada are even more ridiculous. > 100k for
truck drivers. Entry level engineers at 150k + 30% bonuses. > 200 + 40% on
site bonuses for a manager.

~~~
hueving
I don't suppose you mean software engineers? :-)

~~~
ahelwer
Nope, software dev salaries around Calgary are stuck at $65-70k starting.

------
650REDHAIR
(Grew up in ND, live in SD now)

At one time starting wages were $100k/year, but I don't know anyone starting
that high nowadays, except maybe strippers.

The "man camps" are pretty horrible and most people blow their pay on booze
and girls before they leave. It's really depressing.

~~~
Steltek
Sounds a lot like the Paradox of Plenty
[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse)].
ND is fixated on the oil industry to the detriment of absolutely everything
else.

Hell, aren't they just burning all the extracted natural gas because it's
basically a distraction from the liquid crude? There was an terribly sad
update of the "Earth at Night" satellite image showing ND lit up like a
Christmas Tree.

~~~
hueving
> There was an terribly sad update of the "Earth at Night" satellite image
> showing ND lit up like a Christmas Tree

Why is it sad? The light is from lights in towns, etc, not gas fires.

~~~
thaumasiotes
Parent is presumably rooting for North Korea over South Korea based on the
famous nighttime photos. ;)

------
andyjohnson0
The NYT had an interesting video-based article [1] looking at the life of a
female truck driver who moved to North Dakota due to the oil boom.

tldr: steady work but lower-than-expected wages, poor conditions, male
dominated environment, housing problems.

[1] [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/opinion/running-on-
fumes-i...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/opinion/running-on-fumes-in-
north-dakota.html)

------
cl8ton
Even NASA has seen the difference in ND from space.

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/fracking/10463494/Fr...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/fracking/10463494/Fracking-
lights-up-the-North-Dakota-sky.html)

------
jeza
I gather this is the result of the increasing price of crude oil, making small
oil fields that weren't previously considered viable now viable. The output of
these wells is enough to essentially stop oil prices from going through the
roof for the time being.

~~~
saryant
It's not just that the cost of crude is up, advances in horizontal drilling
and fracking have made these wells economical despite lower crude prices.

Fracking has been tried on and off for decades but it was only recently that
wildcatters struck upon the right formula and techniques to unlock the Bakken.

Horizontal drilling is key in this region because the Bakken is like an oreo
cookie: a thin layer of crude sandwiched between two huge layers of rock.
Fracking breaks up the small inner layer while horizontal drilling lets a
single well drill down into that layer and then _within_ that layer, unlocking
far more crude than with regular vertical drilling.

~~~
vardump
Fracking and horizontal drilling are 20-30 years old technologies. The only
reason they're practical now are high oil prices. Technological improvements
have been rather incremental in last 20 years in those.

What was needed was not technology, but oil prices over $80 per barrel.

At least that's what someone who does this for living said.

~~~
saryant
You're ignoring improvements in fracking that have only happened in the last
15 years. Certainly fracking itself isn't new at all, the first attempts date
back under a century, but the cost has come down. Most fracking was done using
vastly more expensive chemical concoctions which were largely unsuccessful in
a lot of shale formations—until someone tried with a solution that was mostly
water. Not only was it more effective, it was half the price!

Moreover, fracking came in to vogue due to drilling for natural gas, not
crude.

