Frac Sand Weekly News Digest
Nick Cook, Editor
Issue #269 | April 29, 2020
While the pandemic news seems to be trending the right direction, the oil & gas world continues to struggle. It is difficult to see so many good people out of work, particularly in the energy sector. Hopefully, with states easing restrictions and opening some businesses, we’ll see an uptick in oil demand and some positive momentum. At the same time, there is good news regarding natural gas. Thanks to so many of you who have called and emailed, just to check in. We’re doing fine here at The Petroleum Connection and we pray that you and your families are doing well too. Have a great rest of the week.
This Week's News
Covia to Hold Virtual Annual Meeting of Stockholders
Covia, a leading provider of mineral-based material solutions for the Industrial and Energy markets, announced today that it will hold a virtual Annual Meeting of Stockholders on May 21, 2020 due to...
U.S. Silica cuts jobs, execs' pay
Katy-based U.S. Silica Holdings Inc. laid off more than 100 workers over the past two months and is temporarily reducing top executives' pay in response the downturn in the energy industry. The base...
VRX Silica advancing approvals process for West Australian silica sand projects
VRX Silica Ltd. is progressing with the approvals process for granting of a Mining Licence for Muchea Silica Sand Project north of Perth in Western Australia. This includes making extensive progress with Native Title...
Frac sand price falls on stalled Permian drilling
Fastmarkets assessed the frac sand, northern white, 40/70 mesh, API, exw Wisconsin price at $25-30 per short ton on April 23, down from $29-34 a month earlier. The price moved due to a fall in frac...
Mobile-Mini Mine Opportunities
Over the past few weeks we have received several inquiries regarding mobile or mini frac sand mine opportunities. From land deals to equipment design to procurement, there is a lot of interest in...
There Is A Bright Spot In The Gloomy Lower 48 Oilpatch (Chart Of The Day + Macro Thesis Highlights)
“Give me some good news for a change,” you say? Our pleasure! Here is a chart you cannot miss because it’s all anyone’s going to be talking about as tight oil gets shut in...
Drilling Down: Gas well projects spike amid negative oil prices
Some operators in the oil patch appear to be making a bet on natural gas prices going up. Drilling permit filings are down on record-low crude oil prices, but the percentage of natural-gas wells is entering...
A new supply chain system for handling Proppants in containerized bulk
Tiltless was designed so that any dry bulk can be transported in standard sea or intermodal containers and unloaded without tilting...
CN Rail profit beats, pulls 2020 forecast on coronavirus hit
Canadian National Railway Co beat analysts' estimates for first-quarter profit on Monday driven by crude-by-rail shipments and withdrew its full-year 2020 forecast following the COVID-19 pandemic...
Layoffs continue to ripple across Texas transport and manufacturing industries
Texas layoffs continue across the transport, manufacturing and oilfield industries, according to a new round of worker reduction notices to state officials on Friday. It is the third round of mass layoffs...
2,500 oil and gas workers in Texas lose their jobs in 10-day span
The oil and natural gas industry shed another 2,500 jobs over the past 10 days, new figures from the Texas Workforce Commission show. Blaming record low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic...
Parked. An Estimation Of W TX Frac Crew Decimation
How bad is the frac drought getting out in the Permian Basin? We discuss…
Spreading the Word Regarding New Career Opportunities
During this particularly difficult time for the oil & gas sector many of our colleagues are looking for new career opportunities. We’d like to help. If your company has opportunities available...
Key Minerals seeks a qualified regional sales manager
The Regional Sales Manager is responsible for overseeing the daily and long-term sales operations of a company across a specific geographic region. As a Regional Sales Manager, you will often be responsible...
Paycheck Protection In The Oilfield
The US government has approved two rounds of “Paycheck Protection Program” funding totaling nearly $700bn. The program offers partially forgivable loans of up to $10mm for companies with 500 or less employees...
U.S. oil producers begin storing crude in Strategic Reserve
U.S. oil producers running out of space for storage amid an unprecedented slump in demand have started making deliveries to the nation’s emergency stockpile. This month, 1.1 million barrels have been...
Forget Frac. EVERYONE Is Talking Storage & Shut-ins
We checked in with a whole bunch of our oilfield service and E&P contacts this week. What we heard from them sure sounds like complete capitulation in the oilfield market. The bottom is coming into focus...
Oil prices poised to go negative again after last week's historic plunge
After last week's historic plunge in oil markets, the question hanging over the oil sector is when prices are going negative again. And with world storage continuing to fill up, it's not too far off, Rystad Energy’s...
New Mexico drops 30 oil and gas rigs in a month, market declines across Permian Basin
New Mexico’s oil and gas activities continued to decline last week as oil prices plummeted into negative numbers and demand for fuel shrunk due to the spread of COVID-19 and subsequent stay-at-home...
Antero Midstream: Appalachia Rebounds
Antero Midstream is a captive partnership, sourcing substantially all of its revenue and earnings from its corporate sponsor, Antero Resources. Its position in Appalachia is built around gathering...
National Oilwell Varco loses $2B as low oil prices take their toll
Houston oil-field service company National Oilwell Varco lost $2 billion as it reduced the value of assets for the second time in less than a year. The first-quarter loss, about $5.34 per share, was dramatically...
U3O8 Corp. To Resume Trading
U3O8 Corp. reports that, further to the press release dated March 30, 2020, announcing that the Company would not be proceeding with the reverse takeover described in its March 2, 2020 press...
Great look at completions trends over the past couple years
Great look at completions trends over the past couple years, higher and higher percentage of a wells production is happening on the front end and dropping off quicker. Lots of factors to dig into; proppant loading...
Reducing the Risk of Shutting in Wells: Part 2 Reserve Risk
The possibility of reducing future production poses the most consequential and perhaps the least understood threat when shutting wells in. Ideally, we would draw on both principles and empirical data to...
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