Energy Scene: Road Trip Across America’s Shale Play

Photography by Paul Flessland, Crude Life Photography

mt rig mat stack mnt — A stack of mats from MT Rig Mats enjoying one last day of mountain air before being shipped to the Eagle Ford in Texas

Oil Rig 2 — The morning sun shines a light on the relationship with agriculture and energy near a Nabor’s well pad

WBPC 254 — Target Logistics CEO Brian Lash (left) talks with multimedia journalist Jason Spiess (right)

WBPC 546 — Harold Hamm (left) CEO, Continental Resources and Jim Volker (right) CEO, Whiting Petroleum participate together on a panel discussion at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference

MT rigmat wbpc2014 D — MT Rig Mats Espresso and Coffee break room with locally roasted mountain coffee

NDLNG first LNG — First batch of liquefied natural gas produced from North Dakota LNG plant in Tioga, N.D.

1m Barrels 4 — Ron Ness, president, North Dakota Petroleum Council, holds up a saucer-size commemorative coin at the Million Barrels, Million Thanks celebration in Tioga, N.D.

1m Barrels 89 — Texas Flying Legends joined the Million Barrels, Million Thanks celebration in Tioga, N.D. Host of the party and Bakken geologist Kathy Neset (back to the camera) seen thanking the Texas Flying Legends

belle fourche doolittle hendrickson — Belle Fourche, S.D., Mayor Gary Hendrickson and then-interim economic development director Jim Doolittle pose in front of their community’s investment into a multi-million-dollar industrial rail park. Belle Fourche currently sees more traffic on Highway 85 than there is on I-90

Port of Vancouver 1 — A wide-angle shot of the Port of Vancouver

Agassiz Chemical’s Steve Hareland (middle) poses with Nabor’s Tyson Olsen (left), rig manager, and Greg Burquist (right), drill superintendent, on a Nabor’s well pad

Port of Vancouver 27 — A shipping barge at the Port of Vancouver

8ft Standard Rigmat1 — From the tiny town of Charlo high in the mountains of Montana, MT Rig Mats president Travis Jordan gets ready to ship some of his company’s product

Author Profile

Jason Spiess

Contributor - The Crude Life Content Network

Jason Spiess is a multimedia journalist, entrepreneur and content consultant. Spiess has over 25 years of media experience in broadcasting, journalism, reporting and principal ownership in media companies. (Over 30 years experience if you count his adolescent years as a newspaper delivery boy learning the importance and logistics of daily distribution and monthly door-to-door bill collecting.) Spiess has worked in the areas of oil and gas, UAS and precision agriculture, health care, cannabis, agriculture, real estate, government affairs and economic development. Spiess is the host of two radio programs, Building the Bakken and Coffee & Capitalism, and three specialty programs, MonDak OilField Review, Corporate Ink and UnStuck, that carry a radio network that spans five states and two countries. Spiess is a North Dakota native and graduated from North Dakota State University.

Energy Scene: Road Trip Across America’s Shale Play

Jason Spiess

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