Dakota Prairie Refining plant manager Dave Podratz, left, and MDU Resources public relations manager Tim Rasmussen stand outside the gates of the Dickinson, N.D., refinery on Monday after it started producing its first diesel fuel. (Dustin Monke / The Dickinson Press)
RURAL DICKINSON — Dave Podratz, still wearing his hard hat, safety glasses and coveralls, walked into a conference room at Dakota Prairie Refining’s main office building Monday afternoon and sat a small glass jar containing clear liquid on the table.
The jar is soon to become a keepsake. It contains some of the first diesel fuel created from Bakken crude oil at the refinery facility west of Dickinson.
After more than two years of construction and testing, the approximately $425 million refinery — the first greenfield refinery built in the United States since 1976 — began making product over the weekend and is now storing it in preparation for sale.
“It’s been a long process,” said Podratz, the refinery’s plant manager.
Construction on the facility, which is jointly owned and operated by MDU Resources Group and Calumet Specialty Products Partners, began March 26, 2013, with a groundbreaking at the 318-acre site about four miles west of Dickinson.
Todd Anderson, service manager at T-Rex Conoco in Dickinson, talks to customer Bobby Metz, who came into the shop Wednesday while looking for an oil change. Anderson said business has slowed down along with the drop in oil prices, but said he’s somewhat happy to have a reprieve from the chaos of the boom. (Dustin Monke / The Dickinson Press)
Steve Keinzle noticed a change around the first of the year.
The manager of Mac’s Hardware in north Dickinson said his business catered to many oilfield service companies, both big and small — mostly hot-shot crews and roustabout companies — that would come in and buy everything from tools to flame-retardant gear for employees.
But when the oil prices dropped out, so did much of that business.
“Their budgets went away real fast,” Keinzle said. “And, of course, we felt that effect right away. The traffic is down.”
Many business owners and managers in Dickinson say they’re feeling the effects of the drop in oil prices as much as anyone else. For some businesses, traffic and profits are down. Others report steady customer flow not all that different from a year ago, when oil drilling in western North Dakota was at an all-time high — particularly around Dickinson.
Some say it isn’t all bad. They say they’re happy to have more time to work on projects, improve infrastructure and think ahead instead of worrying about the challenges the oil boom brought them over the past few years.
“It’s a nice reprieve to be able to slow down a little and catch a breath, because once things get going again, (business) will pick up,” said Todd Anderson, service manager at T-Rex Conoco off Third Avenue West in north Dickinson.
Anderson said he’s noticed a definite slowdown in work. Now his crew has time to take walk-in oil changes or fix vehicles without work being scheduled weeks in advance.
“I’d say equivalent to before the oil came,” he said.
On the other side of the building, T-Rex convenience store manager Vicki Nogosek said she is ordering less product than she did in 2014.
“You notice pretty much all day that it has slowed down a lot, just in gas and everything,” Nogosek said.
However, she said there is some good that has come with the slowdown in business.
Tom Wilson, left, and his brother-in-law Dan Johnson, both of Buffalo, S.D., have manufactured a device that removes hydrogen sulfide, commonly known as the deadly gas H2S, from crude oil. They were at the Bakken Oil Product and Service Show on April 15 at the West River Ice Center in Dickinson, N.D., during the third week of April to tout their device and talk with others about its potential. (Dustin Monke / The Dickinson Press)
An oilfield veteran and a retired schoolteacher believe they have found a method of removing deadly hydrogen sulfide gas from crude oil at wellsites without using chemicals in the process.
Dan Johnson and Tom Wilson, brothers-in-law from Buffalo, S.D., and cofounders of Blue Bull Lamont, gave a short presentation April 15 at the Bakken Oil and Product Show in Dickinson about their machinery and methods they say have been proven to eliminate the gas commonly known as H2S.
The new company — which is funded by and shares a name with Aberdeen, S.D.-based venture capital and private equity firm Lamont Enterprises — has patented a 40-feet-by-8-feet mobile processing unit that was fabricated in Johnson’s Dickinson shop and has been proven by independent oil-testing laboratories to work at wellsites in the Bakken.
“We dreamed it up, we proved it, we patented it,” Wilson said.
Command Center branch manager Kristen Vesledahl, left, speaks to staffing specialist Rena Olheiser on April 22 at their downtown Dickinson, N.D.,office. Vesledahl and Olheiser said more people are coming to their staffing service looking for work since the oil prices dropped. (Dustin Monke / The Dickinson Press)
A few weeks ago, a man walked into Command Center, a temporary labor and staffing service in downtown Dickinson, and said he needed a job after being laid off from a high-paying position on an oil rig.
The man said he’d only work for $35 an hour, needed a minimum of 50 hours guaranteed each week, and wanted his housing paid for along with a $150 a day per diem.
After realizing the man wasn’t joking, staffing specialist Rena Olheiser responded in the kindest manner she could muster.
“Well good luck with that,” she said with a smile.
The days of high wages, overtime, free meals and company housing for many oil workers in the Bakken are coming to an end. At least for now.
This is especially true around Dickinson, where there isn’t a drilling rig within 50 miles and likely won’t be until the price of oil climbs back to levels oil companies deem profitable.
“I tell them here, ‘Everyone is expendable. Everyone,’” said Kristen Vesledahl, Command Center’s branch manager.
The slowdown of oil production and drilling in the Bakken Oil Patch is apparent even in the sales and trade areas.
Foot traffic was a little slow at times Wednesday during the inaugural Bakken Oil Product & Service Show, exhibitors said, but picked up in the afternoon as attendees stayed busy networking and showcasing new products at the West River Ice Center. The trade show continues at 9 a.m. today.
“We’re seeing some of the effects of the slowdown,” said Jeff Zarling, president of DAWA Solutions Group, which promoted the event. “Just like everybody else in the marketplace, we’re waiting to see what’s going to happen and anxious to see when things are going to accelerate again.”
More than 200 exhibitors from across the country showcased products and services, and exchanged information while hundreds of others walked the Ice Center talking to business owners and representatives, taking in product demonstrations and workshops.
“Everybody likes to see lots of people, but there’s also the fact that they like to see quality people,” Zarling said. “It only takes one to make it all worth it.”
Dustin Monke 