Obviously. The jobs were’t driven away in that case; the market disappeared. It’s the enviro regs to which I was referring, as well as high taxation on the oil business in general. One of the factors in the “collapse” was high taxation, which conferred higher fixed costs. When supply increased, resulting in lower prices, some local markets were no longer profitable. If the govt had not regulated and taxed the market in the first place, it might have survived. The demand for oil never went away, but the supply increased, due to manipulation by the OPECers. Enviro regs have essentially made oil drilling illegal in some places, like off the coast of CA.

36,000 my foot.

Read it again, it doesn’t say those 120 will be sitting next to each one of those wells forever.

Still, if we can get 600 permanant jobs that will still be good.

Quite right. As I said in the post, government can’t create jobs.

But they can attract jobs by keeping taxes and regulation to a minimum.

No prob.

Even I'm right twice a day, like a broken clock.

Rob: The only way govt can "create jobs" is to enlarge itself(at our expense).

Free, the last time there was an oil boom in ND was the late 70's, early eighties. You were probably knee high to a grasshopper then. I was living in Dickinson during that time.

Rob, does the article say where they purchased 200,000 acres, where in Western ND, northwest or southwest? Just wondering.