| 2013 | | Taylors College
Lucas Pires - 2065089
Teacher: Jonathan |

[Oil industry in north dakota] | |

Contents Abstract 1 Introduction 2 1. North Dakota First two Booms. 3 1.1: 50’s oil boom 3 1.2: 80’s oil boom 4 1.3: Horizontal Drilling in North Dakota. 4 2. The Bakken and the Fraking boom. 5 2.1: The social Impact. 5 2.2: Why now? 6 3. Hydraulic Fraking Process 8 4. Environment impacts 9 4.1 The wild life 10 4.2 Water 10 4.3 CO2 gas emission. 11 5. Conclusion. 12 Reference list 13

Graphs, Images and Diagrams contents. Graph 1: Oil Industry Booms in North Dakota 4 Image 1: The Bakken Shale Formation Map 6 Graph 2: Bakken Well completions 7 Image 2: Oil rig workers 8
Diagram 1: Hydraulic Fraking Process …………………………………………………………………………………..9 Abstract
The aim of this research report is to analyze the boom in the oil industry in North Dakota, USA. Compare the actual boom with the two previous ones in the 50’s and 80’s with the intention to justify the reason why this boom has high expectations from the economists and drill companies. This report will analyze the effects of this phase socially in the American people and the advantages and disadvantages of it. The Report will explain the hydraulic fracking process, utilized for the oil extraction, and the environment impacts that whole extraction process causes.

Introduction

North Dakota is the state where the oil drill industry is growing the fastest in United States of America was regarded as the Boom in the state in 2008, although there were other booms, actually oil was found in the region in the 50’s but it wasn’t ever properly extracted. They would never be compared with the latest one. In Four years the industry has overtaken Oklahoma, California and Alaska. North Dakota has been considered the main support for the combat to the economic crises proportioning jobs and heating the economy of the country. This situation affects not only the economy but also the affects socially the inhabitants of the state. However it is the Environment that pays the highest price because of the impacts there caused, including deforestation and contamination of potable underground water.

1. North Dakota First two Booms.

Graph 1: Oil Industry Booms in North Dakota.

The Graph 1 clearly shows the oil industry in North Dakota with the number of wells drilled in each year from 1950 to 2000. The booms are noticeable in the two main peaks in the graph; the first in late 50’s exceeding 400 wells drilled and in the beginning of the 80’s when the wells drilled exceeded 800.
1.1: 50’s oil boom
The Oil industry in North Dakota actually started in the 50’s in Iverson farm in the north of the state by the Amerada Petroleum Corporation, but the official date is 4th of April of 1951 when the drilling became economically viable. The discovery period was a time of great excitement not only in North Dakota but in oil cycles around the country. After Iverson Amerada continued finding other profitable drilling areas, Nesson Anticline extended the production 75 miles in a north-south line (Bluemle 2001). The discoveries continued and the ones already in function were producing and developing. However there was a problem that would be uncommon nowadays in the United States. The was no shortage of oil in the country in the 50’s, for this reason most of the oil drilling areas couldn’t achieve their maximum production and they had to be prorated in order to avoid waste of oil. This problem was fixed when was defined that all the producers would receive an equitable share of the market (Bluemle 2001). From the period of 1966 to 1974 the oil production declined due to a failure on discoveries of new drilling points and that marked the end of the first oil boom in North Dakota.
1.2: 80’s oil boom
The second Oil boom in