Manufacturing to Solidify the Boom

On my first full day at Westwood I sat and talked to Patrick Johnson about Westwood's Oil & Gas Pipeline division. He explained, in his mild Louisianna accent, the differences in the Bakken basin in North Dakota and the Permean and Eagle Ford basins in Texas and how the yield curves were much longer for the Texas oil plays and shorter for those in North Dakota. He also talked about the natural gas component of the North Dakota oil field and told me that the best thing for some permanency in western North Dakota would be for manufacturers to come in and setup plants that made use of the cheap gas. That would bring manufacturing and industrial jobs that would be long-term.

They're currently just "burning off" the natural gas that is mixed with the oil. I'm sure that North Dakota looks like a big birthday cake from space with all those gas candles. Well, Patrick was calling it right. Over the past 8 months that I've been here I've seen plant after plant announced to take advantage of this energy source.

Business and community leaders in North Dakota's western Oil Patch have launched an aggressive campaign to convince more manufacturers to set up shop locally, part of a push to expand the area's economy beyond crude production and slash costs. - Dickinson Press

With this kind of forward thinking by our leaders, I believe that Westwood is in a great place to see those opportunities and lead the way in the providing our services to the Energy business. This same type of thinking takes place in our Wind Energy and Solar Energy groups as well.

I'm proud to be associated with a company that provides surveying services that vary from basic boundary surveying that has taken place for hundreds of years to construction surveying services for the cutting edge alternative energy industry.

----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x----

J. Keith Maxwell is the ND Operations Leader for Westwood Professional Services located in Dickinson. His personal views are not necessarily those of his employer. (Obviously. And since he's only been here 8 months, what does he know anyway?)