Hurricane Sandy’s impact on large parts of New Jersey and the New York City area made for riveting and sobering television, prompting an outpouring of responses – including those from the oil and natural gas industry, including:

• Hess Corporation, ExxonMobil, the Phillips 66 Bayway Refinery and the BP Foundation made donations to relief funds in New Jersey and New York, as well as the American Red Cross. In addition Hess offered a matching gift program for employees who wish to make a personal contribution to those relief efforts.
• BP contributed 13 18-wheeler trucks of emergency response supplies (generators, water and other items) to the Salvation Army. In addition, BP provided fuel for emergency response in New York, as well as to ConEd, Verizon and United Water, the northern N... more »

Check out a couple of new videos from North Dakota in which Hess employees and others talk about how energy development in the Bakken Shale formation is changing lives and growing the state’s economy.

Part 1:

Part 2:

The narrative isn’t complicated. As Hess’ Steven Fretland notes in the first video, the Bakken is believed to hold between 8 billion and 40 billion barrels of oil reserves. Companies developing the energy resources need workers, and workers need places to live and services to support their lives. Fretland, who was raised in North Dakota, says Bakken energy is reversing historic trends:

“Younger kids, after they left, you know, you hated to see them go but then they come back and they decide … it’s where they’re going to have their home and raise a family and... more »