Did you know The Crude Life’s very first national story on the Bakken was that it was a technology play, not an oil play. Here are a few of our Decade of Discussion involving innovation, entrepreneurs and technology across Shale Play USA.
Podcast Feature From July 2013: Is the Bakken a technology boom or an oil boom?
Host Jason Spiess interviews former North Dakota governor and current Continental Resources board member Ed Schafer about how important technology is in the Bakken oil boom. His answer prompted us to ask other industry experts whether the Bakken was a tech boom. Schafer said the current technology is only getting about 5% of the oil out of the ground, and as the technology improves, more oil can be extracted from the ground.
Venture capitalist Steve Fifita agreed with Schafer. Fifita’s background is in technology emerging markets and sees many of the same inflection points. Fifita said a theology disruption is what opened the market.
Jeff Zarling, Williston native and founder of Dawa Solutions Group, said this oil boom is different. He said it isn’t “a bunch of roughnecks out there slinging chain and hitting the bars at night.”. Zarling said Richard Finley changed the world when he applied horizontal drilling and hydraulic fraking in the Elm Coulee Field. Zarling added it is all about tweaking and changing the technology within the Bakken to reach the 413 billion barrels below the earth’s surface.
Joseph Mahan, economist Minneapolis Federal Reserve, said the technology boom was an interesting angle, but the Bakken is clearly an oil boom. He went on to say that what the grain of truth in Schafer’s comments were that it is technology that is clearly driving the access to the oil to create the boom. He also added a relatively favorable price of oil for the past decade has contributed to the Bakken success.
In the story above, we featured Kerry Frank of Comply365, who shared her story about how she went from stay-at-home mom to capturing 70 percent of the aviation industry business. She was bringing that technology to the Bakken oil fields and North Dakota.
Comply365′s innovative mobile software solutions has 75% market share within the aviation industry and is now bringing their solutions to the oil & gas industry.
Technology and innovation doesn’t necessarily need to happen on the drill site to effectively impact the bottom line.
That’s the approach one software company is bringing over to oil & gas industry from aviation industry.
At the surface, Comply365 is a software company that provides solutions for managing business operations and processes. But that is sort of like saying Apple is a company that provides solutions for managing music and apps.
This is a company that seemingly swooped in out of nowhere to solve many of the paperwork problems plaguing the airline industry.
The transition to oil & gas was natural to Frank, “Both industries are dealing with a mobile workforce with high turnover and limited connectivity. Both industries are regulated and need to monitor compliance.”
Frank and her team have already begun doing for the gas industry what they did for the airlines.
The Comply365 platform is truly industry agnostic but it certainly shows its strength in regulated industries.
“Any operation that is regulated is run by forms, policies, procedures, and communication. Without those, your business is dead in the water” says Frank.
Dean Bresciani and Jason Spiess discuss the Bakken Oil Field’s impact on the University system and economy. Bresciani goes into detail about the economics and introduction of technology and research as new centers of innovation.
The two also discuss the emerging Unmanned Aerial industry in North Daktoa. He also shares the role North Dakota State will be participating in as well as the University of North Dakota.
Dr. Dean L. Bresciani was named the 14th president of North Dakota State University (NDSU) on May 24, 2010, by the State Board of Higher Education.
A native of Napa Valley, California, Bresciani came to NDSU from Texas A&M University in College Station, where he was vice president for student affairs from 2004 to 2008 and a full professor in the department of educational administration through 2010. Previously he held senior administrative roles at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and faculty positions both there and at North Carolina State University. He also served in administrative and faculty roles at public universities in Nebraska, Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, and California.
Bresciani earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Humboldt State University in Arcata, California; master’s degree in college student personnel from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio; and doctorate in higher education finance, with a doctoral minor in economics, from the University of Arizona in Tucson.
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The Bakken Oil Field has been a Technology Play for Over a Decade Now