![The sun set over the Bakken Oil Formation, behind an oil well near Williston. ] (JIM GEHRZ/STAR TRIBUNE) / September 26, 2013, Watford City, ND – BACKGROUND INFORMATION- PHOTOS FOR USE IN FIRST PART OF NORTH DAKOTA OIL BOOM PROJECT: Dozens of drilling rigs dot the North Dakota landscape in the Williston Basin and the Bakken Oil Formation. Once the rigs drill holes, several miles deep and then several miles horizontally, hydraulic fracturing technology ("fracking") is then employed to extract oil and natural gas from the underlying shale formation. Flaring of natural gas is a practice that costs drillers and mineral rights holders hundreds of millions of dollars a year. While pipelines are being built, the cost to build pipelines needed to ship gas to refineries, especially in remote areas, still exceeds the cost of burning the resource off. ORG XMIT: MIN1309271006084187](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/NYVGANGHDQWD46ECFBMQEFHYCM.jpg?&w=1080)
Last summer, we wrote about Minnetonka-based Oppidan Investment Co.'s big bet on oil-rich North Dakota.
The national property development firm said recently that it developed 783,467 square feet of property across the country in the second half of 2013, bringing the year-end total to about 1.8 million square feet. Also in the second half, the company sold 342,353 square feet of retail space, about 12 acres of land, 114 apartment units, 50 home sites and provided construction management services for seven projects (one of which is complete).
Of the 34 projects either completed, under construction, or the construction management projects under construction and the asset sales highlighted in the report for the second-half of 2013, 18 were in booming North Dakota.
Oppidan President Joe Ryan said last year was the best-ever for the firm, which was founded in 1991. "Oppidan continues to be a strong player in the development of North Dakota's Bakken region," he said. Oppidan "has proven itself to be a successful residential developer, and is sought out as a valuable construction management partner."
