Charbonneau Oil Drilling Site, North Dakota

An oil pumpjack operates at the Charbonneau oil drilling site in North Dakota, part of the Bakken Formation, a major oil and gas production area.
An oil pumpjack operates at the Charbonneau oil drilling site in North Dakota, part of the Bakken Formation, a major oil and gas production area.

Charbonneau sits in McKenzie County, North Dakota, within the Bakken Formation, the shale oil play that drove the state's drilling boom starting in the mid-2000s. The pumpjack and tank battery here are typical of Bakken wellsites, where crude oil is separated and held in steel storage tanks before being trucked to pipeline or rail terminals. McKenzie County has long ranked among North Dakota's top oil-producing counties. Many access roads to wellsites like this one remain unpaved, built and maintained by operators to reach wells scattered across the rural grasslands.

Photo taken in July 2015.

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