Businessweek has a great story about entrepreneur and risk-taker Harold Hamm of Continental Resources — the man who owns the Bakken oil shale fields in North Dakota. Check out what has occurred in North Dakota because of the shale boom and Hamm’s vision and willingness to take the risk.
Thanks in part to the success of companies like Continental, the search for crude is making a quiet comeback in the U.S. Lots of attention has been paid to the surge in natural gas exploration, but more rigs are currently drilling for oil than gas: 1,191, up 402 from a year ago and quadruple the number of rigs in 2007, according to the oil services company Baker Hughes (BHI). It’s happening in Texas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Ohio. Hamm is in the middle of it in North Dakota. The state produced 510,000 barrels of oil a day in November, surpassing the output of OPEC member Ecuador. North Dakota’s unemployment rate is 3.4 percent, lowest in the nation. Hiring is so frantic, the McDonald’s (MCD) in Dickinson is offering $300 signing bonuses.
I found this employment ad from a Dickinson McDonald’s — $9/hour plus $300 signing bonus.
Now just imagine what would occur if the Keystone pipeline were built in this country, and then ask yourself why President Obama said no. In the meantime, American families suffer.
