North Dakota: Oil glut, low prices leave too few workers for excess housing
Thursday, October 1, 2015
In North Dakota, the once booming Bakken shale oil fields brought thousands of workers to the area. Now, man camps and housing built specifically for those workers sit empty.
Bloomberg reports that the sharp drop in oil prices over the past year has put a halt to large-scale hydraulic fracturing, which once was predicted to maintain oil production for decades. Civil leaders believe that workers will return when oil prices increase, but for the time being, man camps in Williams County, North Dakota, are at about 70 percent vacancy.
In the first quarter of 2015 alone, more than 4,000 workers lost jobs in North Dakota, and the Bakken region’s county taxable sales went down by almost 10 percent, compared to the previous year.
Via: Bloomberg > The Real Estate Crisis in North Dakota’s Man Camps
More about housing and the shale industry:
- Eastern Ohio’s Utica region sees continued housing need for shale workers July 12, 2015
- Hotel business slows down along with drilling activity March 15, 2015
- The impact of Marcellus Shale development on housing March 3, 201
- Too many hotels built during Marcellus boom Sept. 27, 2014
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Shale FAQ
What is fracking?
Fracking is a slang term for hydraulic fracturing. Fracturing is a process by which highly pressurized fluid is pumped thousands of feet into the ground to fracture rock formations. The goal is to release the natural gas that’s locked inside the rock.
Is it safe?
What most concerns people about fracturing is ground water contamination. The worry is that fractures underground, caused by the process, will extending upwards and into aquifers, releasing gas and chemicals into the ground water supply. There’s been no confirmed reports of such a thing happening. Though surface spills and drill site blowouts can lead to localized environmental concerns.
Will my water catch on fire?
Flammable water is caused by the release of methane gas into a drinking water supply. Methane gas occurs naturally and can be released by any kind of drilling, including water wells. In Pennsylvania officials fined Chesapeake Energy $1 million for contaminating ground water with methane. It was determined that the company had not properly cemented it’s boreholes and gas migrated up the well, between rock and into aquifers.