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2010
Halliburton
Minot's expanding Great Plains Energy Park will see significant activity over the next several months.
International energy company Halliburton has agreed to occupy 38 acres and become the first tenant in the Phase 2 portion of the park, which is located on the eastern edge of the city. The announcement was made Tuesday morning at City Hall.
Halliburton spokesman Brent Eslinger said his company intends to invest approximately $15 million for operational and maintenence facilities, parking areas and an administrative building at the Energy Park. Work is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2011. According to Halliburton, the facility will bring 250 jobs to Minot.
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Port of ND begins shipping regional ag commodities to world markets
One of the world's largest shipping and logistics companies, Oriental Overseas Container Line (OOCL), shipped the very first load of containerized ag commodities out of Minot's Port of North Dakota this week. A first for North Dakota considering value added products are headed to Asian markets shipped from intermodal ramp in northcentral North Dakota. Success of the inland hub means greater efficiency and therefore cost-savings for shippers and increased commerce traffic in the region. It is highly anticipated that more companies will begin containerized shipments, for example of value-added agricultural commodities, to the Pacific Coast and directly on to world markets.
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Big Oil Moving Toward Minot
Oil drilling will come to the Minot area in the near future, says Lynn Helms, Director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources.
"All the established Bakken-Three Forks companies are playing Parshall and west. But the new money coming in is going to have to go into some of the more risky areas, so I'm very bullish on Three Forks production in Ward County and even as far as here," he said, referring to Minot.
The Bakken Formation, home to 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil, is hailed as the largest continuous oil formation ever assessed by the USGS. However, the Three Forks - Sanish formation lies directly underneath the Bakken zone and extends beyond it. According the Helms, the Three Forks Formation extends beyond the boundaries of Bakken and can produce oil as much as 75 to 100 miles past where Bakken production is.
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Mayor Curt Zimbelman, left, and Tax Commissioner Cory Fong discuss Minot's taxable sales at a news conference Monday. |
Minot's Economy on a Roll
In an economy plagued by financial duress, Minot remains the exception.
After feverish oil activity in 2008, taxable sales and purchases in North Dakota fell to more normal levels last year. However, Minot's taxable sales and purchases continue to grow at record pace - up 7.8% from 2008, according to the North Dakota Tax Department. Minot Mayor Curt Zimbelman said economic growth has been good, and the figures underscore Minot as a regional service center for the part of the state that is doing very well.
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Fly direct
United Airlines announced twice daily service to Denver, Colorado much to the delight of the oil industry that frequently traffics the Rocky Mountain oil hub. Minot has been listening diligently to the needs of petroleum industry, area businesses and companies considering expansions and the additional service is a direct response to these needs. A western destination has been a big target for Minot for the past two years.
Minot will now have a total of nine direct flights to Denver, Salt Lake City and Minneapolis starting in June.
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Trade Consortium Brings Shippers and Exporters Together
December 26, 2009-
For the second year in a row, Minot Area Development Corporation and ag equipment manufacturer Aemsco partnered with the Canadian Trade Office to bring together international trade personnel as well as local, state-elected and Canadian officials for a trade consortium. The gathering provided shippers and exporters an opportunity to examine international trade advantages through the Port of North Dakota and offered an opportunity to enhance U.S.-Canadian trade relations.
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MADC and MSU Host Computer Science Roundtable Discussion
Employer needs was the topic of conversation when Minot Area Development Corporation and Minot State University hosted a Computer Science Roundtable Discussion in late 2009. The strategic partnership aims to enhance the community's ability to provide a sizeable pool of qualified candidates from which knowledge-based employers can fill employment needs.
Bringing their voices and breadth of understanding to the discussion were some of the community's largest employers with knowledge-based needs such as InfoTech, SRT Communications, ING, Trinity Health Systems and IRET Property Management. As MADC's focus for development this year will be knowledge-based businesses, upcoming discussions of a similar nature will be key.
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