After working for the oil industry for the past year, seeing titles like this somewhat catch my attention, especially when boom and strain are used in the same sentence. This tends to worry me, especially with the mass rush of drilling that is occurring in South Western Kansas and North Western Oklahoma. Numerous oil companies from all around are purchasing leases throughout all counties in these areas in order to have drilling rights. However, after they purchased the leases, they have not begun drilling on many of the acres. If they begin to hit some good producing wells, then more rigs will be started.
With a mere 3.5% unemployment rate, this is actually below the suggested unemployment rate. While some people would be ecstatic with the burst of economy, the people of New Town, ND is not. The town of New Town has doubled in size, unfortunately from the towns’ people’s perspective. Due to this doubling in size, the small town is running out of its resources because it is not used to this much use. The town now has little water, their roads are becoming dangerous with overuse, and their local systems such as sewage, are running out of room or energy.
This major oil boom jumped North Dakota to be the 3rd largest oil producing state in the United States. According to Lynn Helms, each acre in this booming area with has a rig on it before they are done drilling. This makes me wonder how it will affect the people who already live there. With all of the drilling happening, what will happen to the land, to the water, or just to the foundation period?
What this oil boom concerns me with also is the massive surplus the state is receiving due to the tax they receive off of the oil revenue. Due to this surge in revenue, the government is not looking into slowing down the production of oil unfortunately. Without their input, there is little the people can do about the wells. Although there is a surplus going to the government, the people in the town are being hit rather drastically with the inflation rates. A single gallon of milk costs $7, which is difficult for people to afford when they are not receiving the revenues from the oil like the government is.
After it is too late, the residents of this area are beginning to realize how good they had it. No, they were no the wealthiest state in the nation, but they were not the worse off state either. In order for the oil rigs to stay on the towns people good side as best as they can, they have scheduled routine festivals to maintain their good moral. Along with this moral, each rig is bringing in 120 jobs each. When you do the math, they are providing approximately 25,000 just this year. Over the next two decades, this number will continue to rise if their schedule goes as planned and they continue drilling approximately 200 wells per year.
So, should we be in favor of this occurrence happening in Kansas, or against it? In the areas that are being drilled, it is not a highly populated area. One of the major worries that people have is what it will do to their crops and their livestock because that is how they make a living. They cannot depend on the oil as a source of income because there is never a guarantee that you will strike oil. Therefore, they are being more cautious when it comes to signing away the rights to their land. Since this oil boom in North Dakota began due to frac’ing, why not try this on some wells in Kansas instead of drilling complete new ones that will take an enormously larger amount of money than just simply performing a frac.
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