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audio, stills, text and or video: Go to zReportage.com to see more - For the first time in 20 years the United States produces more oil than it imports from outside. Williston, North Dakota, is the center of the black gold rush. Five years ago, Williston had a population of 12,000 and was slowly dying on its feet Ð an agricultural hub marked out from the plains only by the grain silos that stand silhouetted against the big North Dakota skies. Today, Williston is booming once again. Its streets are filled with bustling commerce and trucks, its bars, restaurants and supermarkets groaning with customers. Advancements in the oil drilling techniques known as fracking have reinvigorated the small northern town, its population swelling to an estimated 30,000 as people pour in from across the United States in search of work in hard times. As a result of the fracking revolution, the US overtook Saudi Arabia earlier this year as the world's biggest producer of oil and gas Ð a transformation in America's domestic energy fortunes that seemed almost impossible just five short years ago. But the transformation from bust to boom in Williston, ground-zero of this energy revolution, has not been without cost.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 23, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - New technology has made it possible to find enormous reserves of oil and gas in the U.S. The black gold turned the province Williston in North Dakota to a roaring and growing center with oil fever. At the city's office they keep an eye on the drillings.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 24, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - GLENN ROBINSON, 48 years, from Sykesville Missouri, sleeps in his car, even though the city has forbidden people to sleep in their cars. He stays warm by idling the car and using a fan heater connected to the car battery.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 24, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - The population of Tioga is still growing due to the oil boom. City officials are increasingly insisting that development slow down a bit.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 24, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - Drilling rigs tower over this once quiet corner of the prairie. New technology has made it possible to find enormous reserves of oil and gas in the U.S.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 25, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - SHANE PRIMM from Sacramento, California worked for a month as a construction worker in a little city, south of Williston. One night he got into a fight in a bar and his boss drove him to the train station and gave Shane his salary the next day. Shane is going to try and get a job in Williston after the winter.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 25, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - The Target Logistics man camp in Tioga is the biggest with about 1,300 workers. They normally work 12 hours a day or more. In the man camp they have rooms with billiards, table tennis, weight-lifting and TVs.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 25, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - A deer lies on the side of the road outside the city.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 26, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - Pastor LARRY J. DUFFY drives around Willliston and helps people. He distributes water, coffee and sandwiches and warm clothes from the car.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 26, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - Many of the oil deposits are on Indians' reserves, where the native Americans have rights to the subsoil.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 26, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - A trailer camp in Williston. Many feel the town is growing too big too fast and overburdening the system and contributing to more traffic, long lines and increased crime.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 27, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - GLENN HARSTAD, 44, worked in the oil business since he was 18. The first 20 years he travelled 300 days a year and worked at derricks in countries like Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia and everywhere in the US. Ironically Glenn's hometown Williston is now sort of a capital for the oil boom that hit North Dakota. Glenn is now a boss at a derrick between Williston and Watford.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 27, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - A job at a derrick where they drill deep holes in the land. A new worker makes about 55 dollars an hour.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 27, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - A worker's boots at a derrick between Williston and Watford.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 27, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - CLINTON BIRD HAT is a Cheyenne Indian from Lame Deer in Montana. He puts on traditional clothes and war paint in the mens room at the yearly Williston Basin Indian Club Pow-Wow. Many of the oil deposits are in the Indians' reserves, where the Native Americans have rights to the subsoil.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 28, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - DAVID BURRI BREWINGTOM, 43, from Missouri was lucky and got work at a road outside the city. At the end of the day the workers are paid cash and the employment office gets 40 percent of the salary. Every morning at 6 o'clock people show up at the employment office.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 28, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - Since 2005 there has been about 5,000 drillings established in West North Dakota. North Dakota has overtaken Alaska, as the second biggest oil producer in the U.S. after Texas.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 29, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - STEVE JENSEN has had an oil spill on his land. More than 20,000 oil drums leaked and the oil company is now cleaning it up.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 29, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - LYSSA SKOR, 28, farmer and office worker at a truck company. Like many women in Williston, she feels unsafe and always carries a weapon.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 29, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - STEVE JENSEN has had an oil spill on his land. More than 20,000 oil drums leaked and the oil company is now cleaning it up.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 29, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - STEVE JENSEN had an oil spill on his land. More than 20,000 oil drums leaked and the oil company is now cleaning it up.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 29, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - New technology has made it possible to find enormous reserves of oil and gas in the U.S. The black gold turned the province Williston in North Dakota to a roaring and growing center with oil fever.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 30, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - GLENN HARSTAD, 44, who has worked in the oil business since he was 18 is married to ANGELA. She brings fast food to Glenn in the tattoo-shop. They have been out for a long binge to celebrate his first day off in two weeks.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 27, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - GLENN HARSTAD, 44, worked in the oil business since he was 18. The first 20 years he travelled 300 days a year and worked at derricks in countries like Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia and everywhere in the US. Ironically Glenn's hometown Williston is now sort of a capital for the oil boom that hit North Dakota. Glenn is now a boss at a derrick between Williston and Watford.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 30, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - GLENN HARSTAD, 44, who has worked in the oil business since he was 18 is married to ANGELA.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 30, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - LYSSA SKOR, 28, is a farmer and office worker at a truck company. Like many other women in Williston, she feels unsafe and always carries a weapon.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 30, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - It isn't difficult to find a job advertising in Williston.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 30, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - BRENT SIU from Tennessee drove a truck, sometimes consecutively for 20.5 hours at a time, which is illegal. He quit and works now as a painter and lives in his car.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Oct. 31, 2013 - Williston, North Dakota, U.S. - A sign advertises Williston as an oil boomtown.
© Jacob Ehrbahn/Polfoto/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press

Jacob Ehrbahn

Jacob Ehrbahn is based in Copenhagen, Denmark and has been a staff photographer with the Danish daily national newspaper Politiken since 2003. with the Danish daily national newspaper Politiken since 2003. He has received numerous awards for his work, including being named second and third place Newspaper Photographer of the Year by POYi in 2004 and 2012.:512


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