The North Dakota Petroleum Council (NDPC) has answered the workforce shortage problem through its creation of the Bakken Global Recruitment of Oilfield Workers (GROW) initiative. GROW seeks to bring new workers to the Bakken region to train and work in the oil and gas field.
The initiative began recruiting Ukrainian immigrants displaced during Russia’s invasion of the country. A total of 25 Ukrainians have found work through the GROW program supported by the US federal government’s Uniting for Ukraine program. The program, announced in 2022, “provides a pathway for Ukrainian citizens and their immediate family members who are outside the US to come to the US and stay temporarily in a 2-year period of parole,” according to the US Citizen and Immigration Services website.
Former North Dakota Lieutenant Governor Brent Sanford serves as the GROW project manager since the initiative’s inception in March of this year. “The Bakken GROW program is a humanitarian mission and a workforce solution. The NDPC staff and membership are excited to begin sharing the hospitality of North Dakota and the tremendous Bakken career opportunities with a wider group of individuals,” Sanford shared in a press release.
Bakken GROW has announced its intention to have 100 Ukrainian workers in the country by the end of 2023, and a total of 400 by the same time next year.