Business
It comes as no surprise that companies in the oil and natural gas industry have benefitted from development in the Bakken Shale. However, the reach of shale development has extended to businesses wholly unrelated to the industry, and across state lines as oil and gas companies have sought supplies and services to support the phenomenal growth.
- Alexander, North Dakota, is an example of the new hustle and bustle, and challenges, facing communities in western ND - and it truly is a small town with approximately 200 residents in the latest official census. Enroute to the Bakken Shale, Alexander can see upwards of 5,000 to 8,000 trucks a day drive through the city limits - a historic feat for the streets of this small town. The traffic has been a source of frustration for many, but businesses are "undergoing a resurgence, everything from haircuts to food to truck repair." Alexander is also home to the Lewis and Clark Trail Museum, and museum board member, Jodi Stover, is hoping to benefit from the Bakken Shale "oil boom". She'd like to procure funds from oil and gas development to refurbish the museum that houses another historic group of people who passed through the Alexander area hundreds of years earlier.
- North Dakota is home to generous clay deposits which could be the next major economic opportunity for the state. Today, millions of pounds ceramic "beads" as small as a grain of sand are imported into the Bakken Shale from other states and countries to be used as "proppant" to prop open the fractures to make the oil flow. State geologists are analyzing North Dakota's clay to determine if it can be used to make the clay-based ceramic beads, and become the next source for Bakken Shale producers. At a potential of 6 billion pounds of ceramic or sand proppant every year, it would be ideal for the state to be able to manufacture and market the clay beads in-state.
- In Western North Dakota, for example, airports are seeing an influx of flights and are setting new passenger boarding records nearly every month. The Federal Aviation Administration is working with airports to assess current and future capacity and estimating future facilities and cost requirements.
