Amber Hills Properties  Z & R Ventures, Inc. Watford City, ND

For those who don’t live in and around the Bakken, it’s difficult to understand what it’s like here in the Williston Basin.  A few years ago, Watford City and Williston were like a lot of North Dakota towns:  quiet. 

There were a few stores on Main Street, a Walmart and a some family-friendly restaurants that you didn’t need reservations for. Some people were still oilfield workers, others farmed and ranched.  Back then, you could buy a house for less than $100,000.  If you wanted to rent an apartment in Williston, you could get it for $300-$500 a month.

Thanks to the exploration of the Bakken shale, fracking and the high-paying oilfield jobs that followed, however, those days are behind us.  Fast food businesses are paying employees $15/hour and Walmart is paying $17/hour and still having a tough time hiring. Rent an apartment in Watford City or Williston now and you’ll pay $2,000 or more.  Hotel rooms are non-existent.  Home prices are skyrocketing.  Oilfield workers are living in their cars despite earning six figures a year. 

Big money is being made in “man camps”, which offer full-service lodging for oifield workers. These man camps provide a room for sleeping and up to three meals a day for those staying there.  With laundry facilities, game rooms, televisions and other basic amenities, man camps are a popular option for these workers.  For the people who purchase land around the Bakken and put up these man camps, the money to be made is significant. Rooms rent for an average of $150 to $200 per night, and empty rooms are rare.  

 But that’s not the whole story. Somewhat more “traditional” rentals in Williston, Watford City and surrounding North Dakota towns are bringing huge returns on investment. Manufactured homes built to suit 8 people rent out for over $13,000 every month. Put a 2-bedroom trailer house on a property with utilities and you can receive tenant income of $4,000 a month or more from oilfield workers who value having a little more privacy than man camps offer.  People who invest their money in Bakken housing now can make it back quickly and then start earning straight profit within a few months. 

“Sexually-transmitted diseases have risen to a record high in the area,” said Deborah Thompson-Hall, a registered nurse at the health center on the Fort Berthold Reservation in New Town, less than 100 miles North of Williston.

And because of long waits for emergency care, doctor’s offices and health care clinics, people have to wait literally months to be seen. So clinics in Billings, Miles City and Sidney are also seeing an increase in immediate care visits for STDs.

“We see over a couple dozen cases a week,” said a Billings Nurse who wishes to remain anonymous. “It’s not just STDS, but HIV testing too!”

A modern day Sodom and Gomorrah! Drinking, drugs, STDs, HIV, OH MY! Where is Abraham where you need him? So what can be done? Well we all know that cities like Billings, Miles City and Sidney are seeing a number of these cases and education has to be the starting point!

We need to be proactive here and quit turning a blind eye and hope that it will all go away. It’s not going to go away, it’s just going to spread like wildfire. And if we don’t start preparing for it, we could be facing the same uphill battle.

Strippers are being paid astronomical wages, even the owners of Strip Clubs in Sin City are complaining! Now that is bad! This is an ongoing epidemic with the getting more money mentality and the thousands of job openings that still remain in the Bakken.

Man camps run rampant with single guys living in the Bakken for a few weeks at a time and then going home for a couple weeks off. And it’s not just oil field workers, grocery stores, doctors, nurses, lab techs, are doing it as well. Some are being hired and paid incredibly well to do shifts similar to some of the oil workers and live in man camps.

Companies like Schlumberger and Sanjel are working hard at getting families into homes in Williston to clear up the man camp style living. With families moving in that should slow the STDs and HIV, but is there another solution?  What can be done if anything?

I don’t have answers, but something needs to be done or at the very least education available to employees in the Bakken. It’s the wife’s at home, the innocent victims that bother me the most. Something definitely needs to be done about the STD boom in the Bakken!

“I loved making a decision by myself!” is the first thing I heard when Susan stepped away from the completed canvas.   The second thing I heard was from Todd; a loud, unmistakable, “ugh.”  Todd rolled his eyes and then smiled because it was just ‘so Susan.’  Apparently, she had to ask everyone’s opinion before she could settle down and get some work done, get dressed for a party, or decide what to order for supplies.  Todd, on the other hand, didn’t need opinions; he just wanted to get some work done and often went his own way and avoided Susan with her endless neediness.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?   There is an art to collaboration and few people are artists, which is why Canvas Creek Team Building actually uses art for their premier event.  When people step to the canvas, 95% of them have no interest in painting, no idea what they are going to do, and no reason to become engaged in the process other than the directive “you will be there at 9am” from their boss.  They come with reluctance, much like Todd when entering a conversation with Susan.

It’s what happens in the next few minutes that is important.  After beginning the task, participants act in a completely singular fashion until they realize, often with baffling surprise that others could help them complete the task.  They wrestle with this idea for a while then they begin to work together, leaning on each other, supporting each other and finally presenting a completed piece of art they are truly proud of.

This is exactly what is needed in the development of an energy frontier: the act of recognizing others are available with expertise, complimentary abilities and an eye on collaboration.  Collaboration is not the act of indecision or ram rodding an idea, it is the display of ideas, the collective wisdom of those gathered together and the delightful moment when everything comes together for a win that each person has a stake in and can be proud of.  So, how can collaboration be accomplished?

1. Look at the possibilities-what could be accomplished if you had a bigger team, more players or a different skill set.  

2. Know what you do, and what you offer.

3. Listen to what others do, what they offer.

4. Give up ‘ownership’.  When collaborating, it does not matter who came up with the idea or who will get the credit.  You must know that when everyone participating in the process wins, you also win.  There are few things in this world that are so specific that only you can do them.  Embrace that.  Help others and they will help you.

5. Move; get out of the way.  Collaboration moves fast and it gets things done.  Don’t stand in the way with “it’s not how we do things” or “oh gosh, I don’t know.” Jump in and see what can happen and trust the collective knowledge…or don’t play the game.

6. Appreciate others.  Share applause.  Know that together you are accomplishing what you could not have done alone, whether a multi- billion dollar company or a start -up, say “Thank you for your help,” and mean it.  You are collaborating and it feels good.

If you and the people you are collaborating with would like a dose of creative juices (a jump start to your collective success), try jumping into Canvas Creek.  Like a splash of cold water it will refresh you, energize you and teach you the art of collaboration.

Bakken Formation Map (Source: geology.com)

The list below is not all inclusive, but as Synergy Station becomes aware of more research and referral links we’ll update the list.

Williston Wire - New Aggregator for Bakken Related News

The Williston Wire is produced by Williston Economic Development and may be the best repository of information to do your research. It compiles applicable stories from other online sources as well as provides some content it creates. I highly recommend reviewing the archives to get a sense of what’s going on and signing up to receive the e-mail.

Williston Economic Development

Visit the Williston Economic Development department website and click on Resources to access updated presentations, studies, relocations guides, and more.

Williston Economic Development Community Portal

Another site produced by Williston Economic Development, it is the portal to the community. It includes link to the major information sources including the City, Economic Development, the Williston Chamber and more.

Local News for Williston, North Dakota

The Williston Herald website helps you keep tabs on what is going on in this area. It is also one of the most visited sites in Williston.

City of Williston

The building industry should visit this site to review the Building Department and Planning and Zoning Department sections. Also, the homepage contains a link to the GIS Server where you can access interactive maps including property owner information and zoning overlays.

Williston Area Builders Association

The Williston Area Builders Association is the local trade association for the residential and commercial construction industry.

Williston Chamber of Commerce

The Williston Chamber website includes a member directory where you can find listings for realtors, banks, title companies and other service providers.

North Dakota Petroleum Council

The North Dakota Petroleum Council is a trade association for the energy industry and a good resource for industry information.

North Dakota – Department of Mineral Resources – Oil & Gas Division

The Oil and Gas Division of the North Dakota Dept. of Mineral Resources website contains information pertinent to oil industry activity including active drilling rigs. The GIS Map Server shows the location of every active drilling rig on record in North Dakota.