Jake Kubela and his wife, Dawn, were born and raised in North Dakota and have roots in western North Dakota. A former oilfield trucker, Jake Kubela has extensive knowledge of the landscape and workings of the Bakken oil patch.
“What you hear and what it really is are two different things,” says Kubela. “There are so many preconceived notions about what the oilfields are like. People think it’s the wild west out there, they think that it’s just anarchy and that nothing is organized, but when you get them out there, very seldom is it what they thought it was.”
Kubela and his wife began operating World Class Tours of Wahpeton, N.D., in February 2013 and are doing their part to give people a view of what the oilfields are really like.
In June, their company offered its first tour of nearby oilfields. The tour consisted of three days of traveling throughout the oilfields of western North Dakota, staying one night at a crew camp, visiting an active drill site and hearing from many speakers throughout the trip.
“We decided this was an avenue we wanted to try, and bring some people into North Dakota and show them the Bakken,” Kubela says. “We wanted to give them a real, factual, up-to-date representation of what’s really happening, what’s going on and what it’s really like. We are proud of our state, and we wanted to show that off.”
Kubela wasn’t sure what to expect for the first tour – held June 3-5 – as his company was marketing it toward business investors, business owners and others looking for opportunities out in the Bakken.
“We expected that market to fill our bus, but what ended up happening was the Fargo Forum, the local media, caught wind of this and put an article in the paper and we ended up with a half-and-half crowd,” Kubela says. “We ended up with some city managers, economic development people, business owners, but then we also had the general curiosity seekers and retirees wanting to see the oilfields, but didn’t want to drive or come up with their own hotel room.”
World Class Tours provides the transportation as long as those on the tour can get themselves to a bus pickup location along the route, Kubela says. The $599 per person double occupancy fee also includes all three meals per day, two overnight stays, speaker fees and any attractions that may be included in a stop.
Kubela says the 13 speakers on the first tour ranged from those who work in the oilfields to city managers whose cities are located in the Bakken. “They can get up and tell their story, and they can answer the questions the way they want to answer them and they can tell the stories they want to tell instead of having it misinterpreted through the media.”
Kubela noted one common topic on the first trip was fracking and the issues that are in the news with that, including contamination of water sources.
“We had Dave Glatt with the North Dakota Department of Health come and give us a very scientific presentation based on fracking and how he personally believes it is not affecting our water source and why,” Kubela says. “The tour was very educational. We have no agenda, we just want to learn. We want to get out there, we want to give those folks an outlet to talk about what they want to talk about, whatever the current issue is. It helps them to get the word out and to educate people on what the western North Dakota oilfield really is.”
Kubela says those on the tour had their eyes opened to what it is really like out there.
“They got to hear about what the challenges were that the people in western North Dakota face. They learned how the communities in western North Dakota were changed and what challenges they face and how they are overcoming those challenges.”
Kubela has already made plans for a second oilfield tour – tentatively set for Oct. 14-16 – and will be reaching out to those who were signed up on a waiting list for the first tour. He believes more business and investment people will be on board the second tour.
“What I’d like to see is this tour held three times a year, to be able to do one earlier in the spring, then one in the middle of summer and then one toward the end of fall,” Kubela says. “That way we can hit everybody, because the schedules for people tend to get a little busy in the summertime, but for some it’s when they want to travel.”
Kubela, who was an agricultural bank lender in Minnesota before buying World Class Tours, is pleased with the way his company is going. “We deal mainly with bank travel groups, alumni associations from colleges and school-aged travel – longer, more lavish-type tours that are anywhere from eight to 13 days long,” Kubela says. “Next year we’re taking a group down to Brazil for soybean harvest.”
Kubela is happy with the way the first tour went and is looking forward to others.
“This oilfield tour was just something that came up,” he says. “I’m proud to live here, I’m proud to be raised in North Dakota. We wanted to do something to try to flip the mindset of what people think western North Dakota is. We’re proud that we’re able to put this together.”
