| Summary: | NORTH DAKOTA but in using it in large industrial plants on the spot. One of the uses most discussed is to build an aluminum smelter to process alumina from the Gulf Coast and ship the refined aluminum to rolling mills in the Midwest. The calculated combined power costs and freight rates on alumina from the Gulf to North Dakota and aluminum pig to the Midwest are actually less than for the recently developed smelters on the upper Ohio. There is the further advantage of using water power from the Garrison Dam for part of the year. No other large hydroelectric plant has the advantage of being so near a large and cheap source for thermal power. Nearby in Minnesota are deposits of anorthosite that are being investigated as alternatives to bauxite in the production of alumina. If alumina could be produced nearby, there would be a large saving on shipping costs for alumina from the Gulf Coast. Also a possibility is the use of lignite in new processes of smelting Mesabi iron ore and taconite from northern Minnesota. Still another is the use of power to produce ammonia and nitrates for blending with Montana phosphates into fertilizer. Williston Basin Means Oil John C. Gunness, Executive Director of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, told us the state now ranks 9th in reserves and 12th in production. Now producing in the state are such firms as Amerada, Hunt, Texaco, California, Pan Am, Shell, and Skelly. This is one of the few states which set up a conservation program before production began, he said. "We are the leaders in wide spacing and other measures which cut economic waste," Gunness declared. Another factor favorable to drillers here is that land ownership is in larger blocks and leases may be assembled more easily. The Williston oil basin was one of the major developments in oil exploration within the United States during the '50's. Production comes from 13 counties, with the bulk of the 1959 production of 18 million barrels supplied by Williams, McKenzie and Burke counties. Of the 82 million barrels drilled by the end of that year, 43 million had come from Williams County (Williston). Reserves are calculated conservatively at 381 million barrels, but responsible estimates of 750 million barrels of proven reserves can be found. Over half of the state's crude has been piped to Mandan and refined at the Standard Oil of Indiana plant at Mandan, which can handle 40,900 barrels a day. Williston has its own home-owned Westland Oil Company, whose refinery has a capacity of 2,500 barrels a day. Not far away is the Signal Oil and Gas Company's Tioga plant which processes natural gas to turn out LP gases, natural gasoline and sulphur. Smaller plants recently established include the Great Western refinery at Dickinson, part of whose outputs is jet fuel. With salt and sulphur in addition to its oil, gas and lignite, the state has a good start toward providing the essentials for a basic chemical industry. Other mineral resources include bentonitic clay — 240 million tons of it — some uranium in the lignite desposits, and an estimated 23 million tons of sodium sulphate. Clay, sand and gravel abound in many parts of the state. A man with a particularly keen insight into North Dakota's potential is Hank Reed, Great Northern geologist we interviewed in Williston. A native of New Jersey and graduate of Williams College, Reed has been here 9 years and loves it. He has four children and asserts that this is a wonderful place for them. Reed's presence here as a permanent resident is proof of the high regard GN's Department of Minerals Research and Development has for the Williston area. Made up of geologists, metallurgists, chemists, and engineers, the group has made a series of studies which indicate opportunities here for a wide range of activities. Within a 100-mile radius of Williston, Reed lists these resources: potash, lignite, clays, salt, sulfur, bentonitic clay, oil and gas, alumina clay and sodium sulfate. Center of North America North Dakota's position in the center of the North American land mass does not mean that it is inaccessible or useless like the Dead Heart of Australia or the desert plateaus of inner Asia or the Gran Chaco in South America. The average elevation is only 1,900 feet and the state is actually in the center of a continuous plain stretching all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic. The divide between Gulf and Hudson Bay drainage crosses the state but at many places it is inconspicuous and it forms no obstacle to transportation. 26 • INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT SEPTEMBER, 1961
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