GIANT, JAMES DEAN, HAROLD HAMM, BLACK GOLD, HUGE OIL FIND, THE NEW HOPE FOR THE AMERICAN ECONOMY
James Dean in the classic film Giant, from Edna Ferber’s novel, standing under an oil well that had just exploded the black gold up into the sky and landed on his body and smeared his face, dramatized the future of a rich American economy, driven by the oil boom in Texas. This oil boom, turned the US into the economic powerhouse tht it was from the early 20th century until the early 1990’s when companies like Exxon ran out of new oil fields.
The American dependence upon foreign, middle eastern oil was a result of what some called the end of the oil age. It resulted in two wars in Kuwait, and Iraq, and over a trillion dollars spent, protecting the US right to buy oil in large quantities to keep the gas driven economy, the industrial behemoth functioning. The US was a powerhouse in the world, for 90 years, largely because of the abundance of cheap oil, and that was coming to a close.
Harold Hamm, the new James Dean, the Giant from Oklahoma, knew there was oil for years deep in the earth in places like northwest North Dakota, the Bakken, and central and southwest Texas, the Barnett shale. There was also the Marcellus shale in four eastern states, indluding Michigan in the Midwest. The problem was how to get the oil to the surface at a reasonable price, and preserve the environment. Hamm invented and pioneered deep drilling, that sent several drill holes sideways to penetrate the sweet crude, high quality oil. This new technology liberated the oil industry, and has set the US on a new prosperous course, possibly putting the country back as a powerhouse that it has been for a century.
The USGS in their recent paper, claims there could be over 500 billion or more barrels of oil deep under all the states that Hamm and other companies are now working. This is 8 times the amount that Saudi Arabia claims to have. That is enough oil to run the US economy for 2000 years. Everyone knows that in the meantime, companies should be working on the green energy technology to make it more competitive with the cheap oil, but that could take years, and some costly experiments by the Washington Administration have already made the path a difficult one.
Hamm’s first job as a young man was fixing flat tires and pumping gas at a truck stop in Oklahoma. He was always fascinated by oil, and found oil buried in a meteor impact crater. His original oil company made him a wealthy man. He is friends with T Boone Pickens, they are both high risk takers in the oil business. T Boone Pickens has invested a large amount of dollars in wind energy, and is trying to work out the problems. Hamm now has a 73% stake in Continental Oil. There are 208 rigs drilling in western North Dakota and eastern Montana, and Hamm is the top producer and lease holder.
With the US economy still staggering from the Wall Street Meltdown, very little new construction, and a massive credit problem for small business, as well as over 9% unemployment rate, Hamm’s new technology is a fresh hope for a new era of prosperity in America. His company will have to be closely watched by the Feds for any harm to the environment. His operation has already contributed to employment gain in Nampa Idaho, where thousands of prefabricated homes are under construction at the Fleetwood Homes factory, as well as thousands of workers building pipelines.
The chaos at the Walmart parking lot in Williston North Dakota looks like Tombstone on a Saturday night in the old west. People have been sleeping in their cars in below zero temperatures, now there is hope for housing coming from Nampa Idaho. The unemployment rate of North Dakota is 3%. The rate in Texas is dropping fast as well due to the drilling in southwest Texas in the Barnett formations.
There have been dozens of new books written and displayed in the economic section at Barnes and Noble, declaring the end of Capitalism, including “Why Capitalism” by Meltzer. These doom and gloom authors apparently have not met nor studied the amazing work of Harold Hamm.