Ukrainian refugees moving to North Dakota to work in oil fields

foxbusiness.com:

Heritage Foundation V.P. of Foreign Policy James Carafano on Ukraine President Zelenskyy blaming lack of munitions for slowed counter offensive, and the U.S. and its allies conducting military exercises in Australia.

Workforce shortages in the oil fields of North Dakota are attracting Ukrainian refugees who’ve fled their homeland due to Russia’s war.

A humanitarian program known as Uniting for Ukraine has brought 16 Ukrainian refugees to North Dakota as part of a pilot program with the North Dakota Petroleum Council’s Bakken Global Recruitment of Oilfield Workers program, while 12 more are scheduled to arrive by mid-August. The program has humanitarian and workforce missions.

When the oil boom began a decade ago in the Bakken oil field, which is primarily located in North Dakota but extends into eastern Montana and Canada, it initially had a workforce that was primarily local but thousands flocked to the area from around the country hoping to fill high-wage jobs as the U.S. economy experienced sluggish growth.

«People came by planes, trains and automobiles, every way possible from everywhere for the opportunity to work,» Council President Ron Ness told the Associated Press. «They were upside down on their mortgage, their life or whatever, and they could reset in North Dakota.»

GLOBAL FOOD PRICES RISE AFTER RUSSIA PULLS OUT OF WARTIME GRAIN AGREEMENT WITH UKRAINE

Maksym Bunchukov, Andrii Hryshchuk and Ivan Sakivskyi help themselves to perogies at a lunch hosted Monday, July 17, 2023, by the Ukrainian Cultural Institute in Dickinson, North Dakota. The three Ukrainians are among the first recruits of the North (AP Photo/Jack Dura / AP Newsroom)

A downturn in the energy sector, followed by the outbreak of the COVID-19