New drilling technology has allowed the oil sitting miles below wheat fields to be harvested.
Oil leads to millionaires
Oil companies are paying top dollar to North Dakotans for drilling rights. Bruce Gjovig, founder for the Center for Innovation at the University of North Dakota, said the North Dakota oil boom is creating as many as 2,000 millionaires a year in the state. Much of that comes from oil royalties that require no work: Many residents in oil regions receive up to $60,000 a month, some more than $100,000.
“It’s the good, the bad and the ugly,” Mountrail County Extension agent James Hennessey tells ABC News. “The good is the guy with seven wells who’s a millionaire in 24 hours. The bad are those who own the land but not the minerals underneath, and whose roads are tore up and they’re not getting anything. And the ugly is the disparity, which creates a lot of animosity.”
Small towns transform into mini cities
According to the Huffington Post, the population in Williston North Dakota has doubled in the past decade to some 30,000 residents and the average wage there has risen from about $32,000 in 2006 to about $80,000. More than half of Williston’s residents now work in oil-related jobs, and the city’s unemployment rate sits at 1 percent – the lowest in the nation.
The oil boom has not only created millionaires in North Dakota, but it has also created job opportunities for thousands of people. Many struggling with unemployment have set up shop in the city and have little trouble finding work.
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