Frac Sand Weekly News Digest
Nick Cook, Editor
Issue #233 | August 21, 2019
We are only two weeks from the 8th Annual Frac Sand Supply & Logistics Conference! Over the next week, we’ll be sending out information to registered attendees to access the conference app (including the attendee list, agenda, speaker bios, etc.). We’d recommend you also take the time to view the webinar we put together to help you prep for the conference (see that here!).
Plenty of interesting articles this week. Enjoy the read and the rest of the week!
This Week's News
Ex-Soros Fund Manager Gathers Retired Oil CEO’s To Boost Returns
(Bloomberg) -- Where do oilfield service company executives go when they retire? For several high-profile CEOs, they head to Charles Leykum’s investment firm. Leykum, a former fund...
Oil Steadies As U.S.-China Trade Progress Allays Demand Concerns
Oil rebounded to close above $56 a barrel after a volatile session as traders look ahead to a key government tally of stockpiles in the world's biggest economy. Futures fell as...
More… Still More. Another Local Sand Plant Is Going Vertical In The Permian
Back in the heyday of the Permian local frac sand boom (2017), Infill Thinking was breaking news about an incremental Permian frac sand plant once a week it seemed. With the...
Stubborn Low Frac Sand Prices Trigger Wave Of Bankruptcies
A wave of mine closures, bankruptcies and leadership struggles has spread through the United States' frac sand market over the summer, while producers struggle with a glut of oversupply...
A New Last Mile System Is About To Make Its Permian Debut
As we write, a brand new wellsite storage system is on the road making its journey towards a West Texas where it will attract quite a few spectators over the next few weeks. It’s arrival in the Basin...
Hi-Crush, U.S. Silica See Diminished Activity Through Year's End
Proppant oilfield service operators Hi-Crush and U.S. Silica are preparing for a likely decline in U.S. land operations through this year's H2 and into 2020 as customers seek to...
Southern Red Sands Spotlight After CEO Chat (Part 3/4 Utah Sand Series)
In an exclusive series of updates over the past couple of weeks, we have been analyzing frac sand market conditions in the often overlooked Utah completions market where...
Tying It All Together: Mapping Logical Destinations For Utah Local Frac Sand (Part 4/4 Utah Sand Series)
We may be wrapping up our Utah frac sand spotlight series today, but our coverage of this emerging local sand market doesn’t end here. We’ll be reporting on the local sand story in Utah as first shipments...
Sand Mine Workers Face Layoffs
Hi-Crush will shut down production at its Whitehall frac sand mine and lay off 35-40 employees, the company informed Wisconsin officials...
County Board Holds Closed Session; Superior Silica Sand On The agenda
Possible legal and financial consequences stemming from the bankruptcy of Superior Silica Sands were the subject of a closed session held Wednesday...
Railcar Backlogs Turning Upward As Sand, Grain Shipments Slow
The number of railcars sitting idle is climbing to multi-month highs, reflecting the downturn in freight and transportation demand. Nowhere is that more evident...
Long Train Runnin' - Unit Trains Now Delivering U.S. Propane to Mexico
In May 2019, Twin Eagle Liquids Marketing shipped a 100-car train filled with propane from North Dakota to Mexico, marking the first-ever single-commodity train...
An Important Inflection For Permian Drilling This Summer, Predicted By Permits
The rate of positive growth in Permian drilling activity began to slow down in mid-2017. It stagnated in 2018. And it has faded into contraction in 2019. Over this period…
Current Trends In U.S. Shale Plays: Part 2- Bakken Shale
In the previous blog, we discussed about the key drivers and upcoming trends in Permian basin which includes increase in proppant intensity, pipelines bottlenecks...
US Fracturing Test Data Trickling Out With A Lot More Promised
A fracturing test site in West Virginia has quietly made a data trove available on the website of the Marcellus Shale Energy and Environment Lab. Meanwhile, completion...
Schlumberger SPE-194310-MS Reports Trend Toward Lower Normalized Well Productivity In The Midland And Delaware Basins
In February 2019 (SPE-194310-MS paper), Schlumberger reported that average total proppant volume per #lateral length has increased...
Data Illustrates Evolution Of Fracturing Designs In Resource Plays
DENVER–Even as horizontal well development techniques continue to evolve in U.S. resource plays, many key questions remain unanswered regarding wellbore...
Fines From Frac Sand Mine Spill Into Trempealeau River
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued a report on Monday, Aug. 5, 2019, stating that a pumping malfunction at the Wisconsin Proppants mine...
Energy firm Cuadrilla Restarts Fracking In Lancashire (UK)
Energy firm Cuadrilla has restarted controversial fracking work at its Lancashire site. It will finish drilling a second well at the Preston New Road facility by November...
More Glass Production Is Driving Growth In The Silica Sand Market
Fracking sand, silica sand, industrial sand. By any name, one of the world's most common and useful types of sand is in high demand and the silica sand sector is experiencing...
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