Tag: oil

Safety first: MBI offers unique training program — slowly

BELFIELD — Troy Ohlhausen never lets the needle on his pickup’s speedometer go beyond 10 mph when he’s on an oilfield site — even if the site where he’s driving is nothing more than a simulation.

As Ohlhausen drove slow and steady around MBI Energy Services’ training facility Thursday, he pointed out truck drivers training to haul crude oil by first spending time in classrooms, tank batteries set up to show employees proper safety techniques, and even one trucker undergoing a quality control check on how to properly put chains on his truck’s tires.

“You can do training out in live operations, but it’s so fast,” said Ohlhausen, MBI’s director of training. “Everything is fast-paced. We slow it down out here.”

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Gatekeepers of the refinery: Lab chemists play large role in Dakota Prairie Refining

Holly Dalen, laboratory supervisor at Dakota Prairie Refining, shows how to use a flash point analyzer on Thursday inside the lab on the refinery’s site west of Dickinson.
Holly Dalen, laboratory supervisor at Dakota Prairie Refining, shows how to use a flash point analyzer on Thursday inside the lab on the refinery’s site west of Dickinson.

In a windowless room inside of a non-descript steel building at Dakota Prairie Refining’s sprawling facility west of Dickinson, there are six people whose job is to make certain America’s first greenfield refinery built since 1976 turns Bakken crude oil into diesel fuel.

“It’s a chem nerd’s dream,” laboratory technician and chemist Nicole Haller said of the lab where she works on the 375-acre refinery site.

The small lab crew — led by supervisor Holly Dalen of Dickinson — has some of the most important jobs at the refinery, which is in the final stages of testing before ramping up operations.

They already spend each day testing crude oil, diesel fuel and its sulphur levels, as well as other products to be produced by the refinery. They also run constant tests on city wastewater to be used in the refining process.

The lab crew act as the refinery’s gatekeepers. If a product goes in or comes out of the refinery, the lab has its eyes and instruments on it.

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Editorial: Slowdown allows time to weigh environmental impacts

The oil slowdown is here. Is it long lasting? Will prices bounce back by the end of 2015? Or, will North Dakota’s Oil Patch cities suffer long-lasting economic impacts?

No one can answer those questions because no one can predict the future. History has shown, however, that oil prices don’t go down and stay down. They ebb and fl ow. Just as quickly as prices reach lows, they can quickly rocket to all-time highs.

Because of this ongoing fluctuation and uncertainty in the world market, the oil industry in western North Dakota is changing. The boom days are over. The days of a more moderated and economical approach are here as the industry in western North Dakota tries to catch up in all areas, from infrastructure to adapting their business to keep up with new prices. Companies are cutting jobs. Others aren’t doing anything.

As the industry slows to a more manageable pace, one area we encourage North Dakota legislators to openly talk about this session is the environment, and how even a Republican-dominated state can properly balance the oil industry with proper environmental management.

This past month, there were two major spills into bodies of water. One was an oil leak into the Yellowstone River, one of the Midwest’s greatest rivers and a source of drinking water for some Montana communities. Another was a brine water leak into a small creek that eventually worked its way to the Missouri River.

There are also issues relating to rule changes regarding the ongoing regulation of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material, or TENORM. In the December issue, we wrote stories about northern Oil Patch farmers upset about saltwater disposal well breeches into their fields.

We know Republicans aren’t the party most likely to broach the subject of environmental legislation and regulation, but the proof is on the surface. There are issues that need to be addressed during this session, and now is the perfect time to do it.

Shoring up environmental regulations for the energy industry and increasing fi nes for those found to have made mistakes is not going to chase the industry out of the state.

Oil isn’t a reckless industry. It can’t afford to be.

The overwhelming majority of oil industry companies do everything right and by the book. But that doesn’t mean mistakes can’t happen.

If more regulation means protecting farmer’s fields and pastures, and drinking water sources, then we say, do it. It’s the right time to institute better policy when it comes to regulating radioactive material, brine and produced water, pipelines and responsibilities for spills — especially those involving water.

Still building a dream: Despite a decline in oil prices creating uncertainty, southwest ND continues to beckon those seeking success

A worker for Tommy Thompson Contracting measures a 2-by-4 piece of wood Tuesday while building a home not far from the new CHI St. Joseph’s Health campus in Dickinson.

Note: This column is written as the introduction to The Dickinson Press’ annual Progress edition, which begins Sunday, Feb. 1 and continues each Sunday through March 22.

You see them every day. In supermarkets, at your job or school, as you sit down to eat, or when you drive past a construction site.

Almost everywhere you look in southwest North Dakota, people are achieving the so-called “American Dream.”

Western North Dakota, for the past five years or so, has been a place where just about anyone could get back on their feet. There are people here who were broke only a few years ago but now have thriving businesses or jobs that pay very well. Others were simply able to get out of debt after falling on hard times elsewhere.

Now, however, as we enter a time of simultaneous progress and uncertainty, there seems to be few willing to say the good times are over, even if the boom is.

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Spills in the state and a ‘State’ of laughter

Sometimes, you just have to rant. Every once in a while, as Peter Griffin once so eloquently said, there are aspects of life that tend to “grind my gears.” Here are a few of them that popped up last week:

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