North Dakota

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the State of North Dakota, and the Bakken Basin Safety Consortium have signed an alliance to protect employees and promote safety and health in the oil and gas industry.

The North Dakota Petroleum Council is introducing One Basin—One Way, a program that hopes to reduce orientation redundancies and streamline training.

These balls have the potential to alter how pipeline inspections are done, and a consortium of pipeline operators and industry experts in North Dakota is examining just how well this emerging technology can handle the small-diameter pipelines in the area.

The oil industry will be able to draw water from the Little Missouri State Scenic River for hydraulic fracturing after North Dakota officials lifted an 8-week-old moratorium on industrial water permits, raising concerns from some conservationists about the effect on the Badlands.

The amount of natural gas flared has plunged in North Dakota, a region that has been the leader by far in gas wasted because gathering systems could not hook up the wells fast enough.