Oil boom attracts locals

The boom is the largest in decades, and has attracted several modern-day pioneers, like James Stavseth and Nick Hagen. Both 2006 Falls High graduates packed up and headed west for a strike-it-rich lifestyle away from forests and lakes of Borderland to one of long hours and congested living situations.

“I was excited, mainly just to be working a decent job again,” said Stavseth who has been working in the field for two years.

Hagen, too, was anxious to “get out on my own and make some good money.”

The heart of the oil rush is in Williston, N.D., a city near the Montana border with a population of about 12,000. About 350 oil companies have moved into the city and the surrounding area to almost double the town’s population since the boom began, reports North Dakota Public Radio.

Located on the Williston Basin sits the Bakken Shale Oil field that stretches down from Canada into North Dakota and Montana. Oilshalegas.com estimates the basin could hold more than 4 billion barrels of oil reserves, making it the largest oil discovery in the lower 48 states.

Stavseth says there is “a ton of money to made during the boom,” it is just a matter of who is willing to take on the task to seek the ground’s riches.

Drive for oil

It is no secret that the dollar signs associated with boom are what keep Stavseth and Hagen hard at work.

“I enjoy the money hands down,” Stavseth told The Journal. “The money is what makes (the work) enjoyable. When I first came out here, I was extremely overwhelmed with the amount of people and just how big of a boom this really is.”

He continued that the North Dakota’s weather isn’t as appealing as the paycheck.

“I absolutely hate the winters out here,” he said. “Although this one was a mild one, (winters) are normally very extreme. Coming from the Icebox of the Nation, it feels colder out here.”

Hagen had a similar opinion.

“The money and the schedule is what intrigued me to work in the oil field,” he said.

Hagen adds that he also enjoys the challenge of working on the equipment, the long hours, meeting new people and the unique aspects associated with working in the oil field.

Living a new life

The living situation for the two former classmates is very different, as it is for most of the people working alongside them.

Stavseth and his girlfriend, Lexie DiQuinzio, rent an apartment in Minot, N.D., about 55 miles from his job site in Stanley, N.D. Stavseth said, other than the couple making a move from the Falls to North Dakota, he didn’t have to make any big changes when accepting the new job.

Hagen, however, explained his “entire life changed when moving out to North Dakota.”

“I had to sacrifice a lot,” he said.

Hagen said he had to re-home his 3-year-old Labrador retriever and missed the birth of his niece when he made the move to the oil fields.

And, unlike Stavseth, Hagen lives across the state in a man camp just outside of Watford City, about 45 miles outside of Williston, where he works.

“The camps sleep 12 people and they have two showers and a kitchen,” he said of his living situation.

Hagen also spends a lot of time in his pickup. Aside from driving 90 miles each day he works, he also travels almost 500 miles every seven days to Warroad to visit his girlfriend, Missy Fisher.

“I work seven days on, seven days off, so every seven days, I’m traveling back to North Dakota or back (to Warroad),” he said. “I put around 2,000 miles on (my truck) a week.”

Hagen admitted that only spending half a year with Fisher does strain the pair’s relationship, but they are hopeful she will be reassigned for work and they will make their home in Kalispel, Mont., soon.

While Stavseth and Hagen have found ways to make relationships work while working in the oil field, others have not, they said.

“I have seen a lot of people not be able to handle being that far away from home and their families,” Stavseth explained.

“The turnover rate is huge,” Hagen added. “In the past two years, I have seen a lot of people come and go in the oil field. That’s just on my rig alone — there are 206 rigs out there.”

Difficult work

Stavseth said his experience with a high turnover rate is “mainly because it is a difficult job.”

The 23-year-old works as a derrick hand, which puts him on the drilling end of the boom. His crew, he said, drills the holes that produce the oil.

Hagen works as a motor hand, making him responsible for maintenance and operation of the rig’s motors.

“The work is high stress and dangerous,” he said.

Hagen continued that challenging work isn’t the only risky piece of the puzzle — travel is just as hazardous. “I’m traveling hundreds of miles back and forth on some of the most dangerous roads,” he said. “People always complain about logging trucks back home. Take the entire population of Duluth and give every person a semi or a welding truck and set them all loose in the same area — it is mayhem out here.”

Future plans

As the friends look to the future, both are aware that the industry they are working in isn’t permanent and “could end at any time.”

“I don’t see (the work) going anywhere for a long time,” Hagen said.

Stavseth had similar opinions as he described what he hopes the next five years look like for him.

“I hope to still be working out here,” he said.