Business Leaders Connect Billings to the Bakken

BILLINGS - Activity at the Bakken Oil Formation is causing growth in Western North Dakota and Eastern Montana. Williston, N.D. is being described as having the nation's fastest growing economy, and local businesses are meeting Thursday hoping to get into the action.

"When you double the size of a town, you don't just need oil workers, you need dentists and doctors and nurses and teachers and pretty much everything," said Williston Economic Development Executive Director Tom Rolfstad. "And it's happening very rapidly, so that's even more challenging to try to keep up."

Rolfstad is meeting with Billings business leaders to encourage them to bring their businesses and workers to the Bakken area.

"This could be a good thing for Billings and a good thing for us," Rolfstad said. "A win-win situation."

Experts with the U.S. Geological Survey said the Bakken Oil Formation is the largest continuous oil resource in the lower 48 states. Rolfstad said it reaches 13,000 feet below the surface and spans 100 miles around Williston.

Business leaders are making efforts to market the Yellowstone Valley as an energy hub for the Bakken.

"The Bakken area is ripe for business. There's so much of a need for outside entities to come in," said Jeremy Vannatta with the Big Sky Economic Development Authority. "If they're a welder, if they're a manufacturer, they paint vehicles, whatever it may be, how can we get tied into that area and really help Billings businesses and Yellowstone County grow."

No one can say exactly how many jobs the Bakken Oil Formation will create, but Rolfstad said he expects long-term economic growth and sustainability.

"While oil has kind of been branded as a boom, bust business, we just celebrated 60 years of oil in North Dakota, and I fully expect 60 years from now we'll be celebrating 120 years of oil. So I think it will be a part of the economy for a very long time."

Rolfstad said some Billings businesses are already expanding to the Bakken area, but he sees more opportunities for growth.

Thursday's conference is being held at the Crowne Plaza with a series of free seminars starting at 8:30 a.m.