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Just want the impressions of folks new to the Bakken or other areas of the oil fields,....What is the town like where you are relocated? How are the folks treating you or each other?? Good, Bad and the Ugly truth.....
I've been here since December (October, really, but my first job sent me to Texas for six weeks of training). I spend December through mid-March in Williston, and I'll admit, I got no love for that town. Oil-field trash is a derogatory term, and I don't like using it, but boy, there's a lot of people there who work hard to earn it. Every down-and-out guy in the country knows that Williston is the place to be if you want to make some money, and included in that group is a not-insignificant percentage of dirtbags.
Williston is completely overrun, and worse yet, their leadership seems hell-bent on making the situation worse. No one is allowed to build new housing, which forces the oil companies to buy out existing housing and evict the current occupants to house their employees. When rent in rural North Dakota rivals that of Manhatten, well, you kinda screwed up.
I found a better job in Watford City, with decent housing, and it's much better down here. Traffic is calmer, and the town doesn't feel like it's under siege (relatively speaking). I don't know enough about local politics to judge, but it seems McKenzie County has handled the boom much better than Williams County.
I've been here since December (October, really, but my first job sent me to Texas for six weeks of training). I spend December through mid-March in Williston, and I'll admit, I got no love for that town. Oil-field trash is a derogatory term, and I don't like using it, but boy, there's a lot of people there who work hard to earn it. Every down-and-out guy in the country knows that Williston is the place to be if you want to make some money, and included in that group is a not-insignificant percentage of dirtbags.
Williston is completely overrun, and worse yet, their leadership seems hell-bent on making the situation worse. No one is allowed to build new housing, which forces the oil companies to buy out existing housing and evict the current occupants to house their employees. When rent in rural North Dakota rivals that of Manhatten, well, you kinda screwed up.
I found a better job in Watford City, with decent housing, and it's much better down here. Traffic is calmer, and the town doesn't feel like it's under siege (relatively speaking). I don't know enough about local politics to judge, but it seems McKenzie County has handled the boom much better than Williams County.
Part of that is there is less drilling going on down that way currently so there is less stress on infrastructure. And since McKenzie County didn't have any zoning ordinances people were able to build pretty much anywhere or put RV parks up everywhere. They recently changed that since things were getting out of hand with it. But I agree that the local leaders have done a crap job with handling this, they keep trying to force everything into Williston and the city can't handle more growth atm.
I did my first tour of North Dakota back in January of 09 and was here for about 6 months. I lived in Kenmare at the time and worked out of the EOG field in Stanley. The company I worked for was also in Williston and Dickinson. So needless to say I spent a lot of time in Minot, Dickinson, and Williston. When I found out I was going to be transferred back to ND last January I fought to make sure that I did not go to Minot or Williston. I am now in Dickinson and can say that it is not too bad here. I like the area better than up north and things seem more reasonable. Don't get me wrong there are still crooked people here and my ex land lady was one. But all in all I have been to worse places and am glad I won the fight to be in Dickinson.
My son has found the ND people to be straight shooters and helpful, a lot like Eastern MT, which we are from, my son and I both born and raised. I don't think most of the world is like that anymore. I am shocked at the amount of corruption I have been personal witness to or heard about since being around the twin cities. I would have never thought it.
McKenzie county (Watford City) currently has the most rigs drilling in their county. The problem with Williston is it is pretty much the city that the majority of companies are locating out of. There are oil companies in all the other towns as well, but there are no towns in comparison at the moment to Williston as far as number of oil related companies and employees.
The 2011 statistics show Region 1 (Williams, Divide, McKenzie) had over 9,000 in the mining and extraction industry. (this does not include trucking, wholesale, etc... that the oil industry heavily is involved in as well)... the 2012 numbers are not out, but Williams county alone has 10,000 mancamp beds. 10,000 workers in mancamps alone, this does not include the number of workers that live in the communities scattered throught this region. https://www.ndworkforceintelligence....012edition.pdf
I am totally new to all this oil rig business, my dad just told me about it lastnight. Hyped it up as fast easy to get jobs. He made it sound like boom was just starting...seems like the action has been happening for a while now. Has the population grown a great deal?
I am totally new to all this oil rig business, my dad just told me about it lastnight. Hyped it up as fast easy to get jobs. He made it sound like boom was just starting...seems like the action has been happening for a while now. Has the population grown a great deal?
Williston from 12,500 to about 30,000 including the mancamps. There are jobs, just harder to get than they were a year ago....so many people applying. There are some really helpful threads.....if you have questions do a search of this forum....almost every question has been asked and answered. If you don't find the answer, just post a thread...lots of helpful folks on here. There is also a boom in Kansas, Texas....Colorado.
Just as an FYI, Colorado and Kansas are exploring oil pretty heavily and production is increasing, but it's not even remotely comparable to ND
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