Canadian companies flock to N. Dakota's Bakken oil play
20.05.12
By March, Precision intends to have 33 of these rigs running – their drill bits aimed at a lucrative payload nearly three kilometres beneath the earth. It is the Middle Bakken formation, known to most as simply the Bakken, a reservoir jammed with so much oil that companies have flocked from all over the world to profit from it.
That includes a growing cadre of Canadian companies that are using the Bakken – and a series of oil and gas plays like it in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Ohio and beyond – as a springboard to expand their presence beyond Canada. And while they’re brought here by the scent of opportunity, they’re also cashing in on the serendipity of proximity: Williston lies just 1,000 kilometres from Calgary, and an easy day’s drive from Edmonton for the flow of men and machinery that have been dispatched here.
That’s not the only perk – there’s also winter experience, an important distinction compared to U.S. service companies that tend to be based in more southerly latitudes.
Source: Globe and Mail