When that omniscient voice whispered its famous advice to a farmer in an Iowa cornfield in the movie “Field of Dreams,” Kevin Costner listened. And when North Dakota State University instructors offered their counsel a few years ago to one of their students, Justin Kringstad listened, too.

“They told me ‘If you love geology, you should look at the geological engineering program at the University of North Dakota,’” he said.

So, Kringstad did just that and transferred to UND where he focused his studies on the oil industry. Of course, when he graduated in 2007, Kringstad didn’t find himself with a baseball field full of visitors from the great beyond, but what he did walk away with is proving its immense and ever-increasing value – a career in North Dakota’s booming energy industry.

In August, Kringstad took over as director of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority, an organization created by the state legislature in 2007 to study and develop energyrelated pipeline facilities in the state. For the Bismarck native, the position seems a perfect fit, but there was a time Kringstad didn’t think living and working in the state was in his future.

“I was pretty worried going to college that there wouldn’t be a position for me in North Dakota,” he said. “When I started in geological engineering, we weren’t experiencing the boom in the Bakken like we are now and I thought I might have to go to Denver or Houston to find a job.”

But the oil boom the state is experiencing of late, like that in the Bakken Formation in western North Dakota, means Kringstad – and many others – have plenty of work to do right here at home. It is, however, work that requires some long-range vision. “These pipeline projects take several years to get in the ground and operational,” Kringstad said. “The big challenge is to determine where North Dakota production is going to go in the next two, five, 10 years down the road.”

Lynn Helms, director of Oil & Gas Division for the North Dakota Industrial Commission, works closely with Kringstad on Pipeline Authority projects and agrees with Kringstad’s assessment. “Infrastructure has always and will always lag production, so you don’t build transmission lines in anticipation of energy production, you build them in response to it,” Helms said. “The goal of the authority is to shorten that lag time and really help the people that are going to invest the capital to put those plans together more quickly.”

North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness is involved with management of the Pipeline Authority and says Kringstad’s most important task in shortening that lag is to better define the role the organization serves in the industry. And he says the new director is proving himself ready and able to take on the challenge.

“He’s a hard worker and he’s tackling something that’s somewhat new to him,” Ness said.

In addition to helping identify ways for North Dakota to capitalize on its energy potential, Kringstad is working to develop the Pipeline Authority’s identity in the eyes of state residents. To that end, he’s created a quarterly newsletter to keep interested parties informed about what the group is working on, and is also helping revamp the organization’s website to make it more informative and user-friendly (www.pipeline.nd.gov). In addition to his Pipeline Authority duties, Kringstad also owns a business called Terra Utilities Company and will welcome his first child with his wife, Katie, in February.

While it might not be the stuff of a Hollywood blockbuster, Kringstad hopes his work with the Pipeline Authority will help the state cash in on its oil and natural gas potential. “The energy industry is my future and I want to do my best to position North Dakota as one of the nation’s top energy producing states,” Kringstad said. “It’s challenging but it’s exciting. I’m loving it.”

-Story by Carolyn Moore