The expanded effort to capture as much oil as possible has led to some very profitable times for counties in western North Dakota.

The activity in the field is greatly benefiting citizens in those counties and the county itself.

Doug Graupe is a Divide County commissioner.

He says the Bakken Formation is churning out barrel after barrel in places all across his county.

One area to the west of Crosby has produced eight straight well hits and close to 25 wells are active now throughout the county.

Graupe says all of this means good times for his county.

(Doug Graupe - Divide County Commissioner) "The biggest thing for us as commissioners is that it has really helped with our budgeting. We are getting more oil production tax funds into our general fund and it has really helped our budgeting process."

Graupe was in Minot today for the quarterly meeting of the Elmer Jesme Conference of Counties. watch the video | save this article / add to your favorites list