VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The continuous drop in oil price for the past 18 months may impact $125 million real estate-backed securitized loans in North Dakota. The oil drillers in North Dakota have reduced their activity in the wake of lower oil prices. The reduced activity in shale hubs is poised to dampen the property market in North Dakota.

Just over a decade ago, this sleepy farming community on the fringe of North Dakota's Bakken shale formation hosted the state's first horizontal oil well to be hydraulically fractured, or fracked, helping set in motion an economic revolution that shook the world.

U.S. energy firms are swiftly shifting drilling rigs away from less productive areas and hunkering down in sweet spots of North Dakota and Texas shale oil fields as they try to lift output and cut costs in response to the toughest crude market in years.

Washington is facing growing international pressure to ease its long standing ban on crude oil exports, with South Korea and Mexico joining the European Union in pressing the case for U.S. oil shipments overseas.

Texas, US-based oil and gas exploration and production services provider IronGate Energy Services acquired North Dakota-based firm Green Light Energy Services for an undisclosed amount.

Oasis Petroleum purchased four acreages in North Dakota for USD 1.52 billion.