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Waconia.  952-442-2956

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Victoria * 952-443-2582

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952-448-4580

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City of Victoria  952-443-2771

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The Oil Patch

Dedicated to the sunshine of truth,

the moonshine of meeting deadlines,

and the starshine of Victoria.

8661 Deer Run Dr. * Victoria

952-443-2351

by Sue Orsen

         In the patchwork that is the canvas of our life and our world, hues and horizons abound in an amazing way that connects it all together like a mural on the wall of humanity.

         Here in Victoria, we share a patchwork of lakes and parks and attractive neighborhoods, among other good things.  In our homes and backyards, we find colorful patches that make up family life.  A kaleidoscope of other patches proliferates in our schools, churches, and downtowns.  We are connected to all of it and to each other like patches on a quilt or like oils on a canvas.

         One very large and significant patch that colors our communal canvas, and holds light in the corners and around the edges, for people with eyes to see, is the Oil Patch.  The Oil Patch affects, to an unusual degree, the lives of everyone on the planet today and into the future.

         I’ve been visiting the Oil Patch of North Dakota since 2008 when our daughter and her family moved to Tioga, the oil capital of North Dakota, now the second largest oil producing state in the nation.  The future is theirs and ours, for better or for worse.  Better heads will say better.

***

         We arrived at the Norgaard home on Valentine’s Day 2014 and the foremost topic of conversation was the gigantic explosion that had just occurred the evening of Monday, February 10th, about four miles south of their home.

         Said daughter Jenny, “Before any emergency vehicles appeared, we were sitting there on the edge of the road going, ‘Wow! Wow! Holy Cow!’  It was like a bomb went off.  We watched the fire trucks and ambulance arrive on the scene.  Our hearts were thumping.”

         Christopher, Jenny’s husband and head of their Oil Patch home, had been working outdoors that evening -- it was about 8:30 p.m. -- and noticed the sky was lighter than normal in the south, and then they heard a rumble and deep roar.

         “When I heard our garage doors rattle,” said Chris, “I thought, ‘What the hell!’ So I got Jenny and the kids and said, ‘Let’s go for a ride.’  Then we saw the explosion in process.  We’d hear a boom and the flame was so huge we thought it was an oil truck just over the hill but it was three miles away yet.  Should have had a bag of marshmallows.”

         “Gunnar didn’t stop talking.  He talked nonstop," said Jenny.  "Addie said she had a headache from Gunnar talking.  He was talking a mile a minute, he was so impressed.  He said he was shaking.”  Addie is 11 years old, and Gunnar is 9.

         “That’s our excitement,” said Chris with a tongue in cheek smile.

         Chris explained the explosion occurred at a gathering station, a compressor station.  “It’s a whole network of pipes where the natural gas that’s being collected from wells in the surrounding area is compressed, in order to regulate the flow of the gas into the gas refinery here at Tioga,” he said.

         Where does all this natural gas come from?  It’s found two miles underground along with the crude oil, in the Bakken Formation, and it comes up with the oil.  The gas can be flared off at the well site or it can be collected through a pipeline system.

         I learned that when there is no gathering system, the only option is to flare the gas, burn it off immediately near the wellhead.  Otherwise there’d be a cloud of natural gas over the area and it’s very explosive. 

 

Click here to continue The Oil Patch.

The Victoria GAZETTE

ebruary 201c4

March 2014

From a distance, the oil well pumps scattered from Minot west to Tioga and to Williston don't seem so big.  You get a much better perspective when you stand right next to them and look up.  That's Jenny and her kids next to the oil well that's less than a mile from their home.