Wayzata-based Northern Oil and Gas, Inc., is among the 100 fastest-growing companies in the world, according to Fortune magazine.
 
Northern Oil, which ranked seventh, was the only Minnesota company on the list. Fortune described companies included in its annual compilation as “high achievers” that represent the “most vibrant part of corporate America and beyond.” Companies were ranked based on their three-year average revenue and profit growth rates.
 
Northern Oil is an oil and natural gas exploration and production company that drills primarily in North Dakota and Montana. The company reportedly had an average three-year revenue growth rate of 237 percent and a three-year profit growth rate of 122 percent.
 
Northern Oil is “riding high on the hydraulic fracturing wave,” Fortune said in its report, referring to the now common method of oil and natural gas extraction.
 
The company reportedly bought several properties last year in the oil-rich area surrounding the Bakken and Three Forks rock formations, both of which run under the western part of North Dakota and into Montana. By the end of 2011, the company’s reserves were up 198 percent from where they were at the end of 2010, Fortune said. This year, first and second quarter sales were reportedly up 151 percent and 99 percent, respectively, year-over-year.
 
“And there’s no sign of any slowdown,” Fortune said.
 
Northern Oil reportedly completed another 162 wells in the second quarter, bringing its total number of producing wells to 955, with an additional 150 in the works.
 
Northern Oil is among Minnesota’s 80-largest public companies based on revenue, which totaled $149.3 million in 2011, representing a 235 percent year-over-year increase.
 
Canada-based Silver Wheaton Corporation took the top spot and was followed by Austin, Texas-based Cirrus Logic, China-based Baidu, Dallas-based HollyFrontier Corporation, and Pittsburgh-based HFF. To view Fortune’s full list, click here.

Twin Cities Business columnist Tony Carideo last year examined Northern Oil & Gas' financial performance and growth, and he argued that the company appears to be operating at the edge of the ethical envelope. He said that a “years-long pattern of management decision making and behavior—both professional and personal—calls into question Northern’s ability to act fully in the best interests of its shareholders” and examined some of its practices and ethics. Read the full story here.