<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs to be updated . Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information . (February 2016) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs to be updated . Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information . (February 2016) </Td> </Tr> <P> The North Dakota oil boom refers to the period of rapidly expanding oil extraction from the Bakken formation in the state of North Dakota that lasted from the discovery of Parshall Oil Field in 2006, and peaked in 2012, but with substantially less growth noted since 2015 due to a global decline in oil prices . Despite the Great Recession, the oil boom resulted in enough jobs to provide North Dakota with the lowest unemployment rate in the United States . The boom has given North Dakota, a state with a 2013 population of about 725,000, a billion - dollar budget surplus . North Dakota, which ranked 38th in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in 2001, rose steadily with the Bakken boom, and now has per capita GDP 29% above the national average . </P> <P> There are three reasons for the oil boom, in North Dakota as well as elsewhere in America: </P>

When did the oil boom start in north dakota