Shrugging off winter's bite in N. Dakota oilfields

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Shrugging off winter's bite in N. Dakota oilfields
By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press : December 5, 2013 : Updated: December 5, 2013 6:20am

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Some people were choosing to stay indoors as an arctic blast swept across the Northern Plains, but the prospect of temperatures not cracking single digits had a different effect on the roustabouts, roughnecks and thousands of others working outside in western North Dakota's oil patch.

For them, it was just another challenge to face as they go about the task of pulling nearly a million barrels of oil a day out of the ground.

"This is what I love to do," said Craig Hovet, during a break from maintenance work on a well near Mandaree. "The joke around here is: This kind of weather keeps out the riffraff."

Hovet and his crew shrugged off blowing snow and single-digit temperatures on Wednesday, but the real deep freeze was just ahead. Thursday's projected high was minus 6 degrees, falling to minus 10 by Saturday, with overnight lows to 24 below as a major winter storm bulldozed from the Rockies eastward.