Interviews: Richard Gardner, PHD Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, Patrick Hart, President Meyer Real Estate Group, Ken DeCubellis, CEO, Black Ridge Oil & Gas, Nancy Hodur, Research Professor NDSU, Shawn Kessel, Dickinson City Administrator, Peter Elzi, Principal Partner THK Associates
Building the Bakken Radio Episode 2 Segment 2: Part 2 – How long will the Bakken “boom” last?
Nancy Hodur, assistant research professor, North Dakota State University, said to take stock in the information provided about the Bakken. She said all their models show despite tremendous growth in the past two years, there is still unbelievable potential in the future. Hodur said currently there are roughly 8,000 wells in the state and the consensus scenario is a projected 40,000 wells. She said this boom is the “real deal,” and it wasn’t going to “poof go away.” She added the oil activity “will change the face of western North Dakota.”
Dickinson city administrator Shawn Kessel addressed the city’s potential growth. Kessel said projections for the city’s population in the next 5 to 10 years are between 42,000 and 47,000, up from nearly 20,000 today. He said he was confident Dickinson would reach the 42,000 mark. Peter Elzi, THK Associates, pointed to a number of factors that could effect the length of the Bakken play. For example, Elzi said just the number of known wells going up in North Dakota should result in at least 20-30 years of activity. However, Elzi did cite factors that could effect that time frame like “the EPA or the folks in Washington doing anything stupid.” Elzi believes the continued production of the wells and services will continue into the next generation.
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