In the war of kancevica with Saudi Arabia there’s a new humble “hero”, which, in principle, can provide the American oil companies win — it’s sand. Ordinary sand, which became the main element of the improved technology of hydraulic fracturing.
Recall that this method is the injection of water mixed with certain chemicals, into a well drilled in the shale formation. At some point in this mixture add sand to expand small fractures shale jumpers.
But now American drillers to increase the efficiency of the process, began to use the technology, called Mega Frack, reports to the information resource Oil Price. It’s pretty simple — now in the well began to pump a lot of sand, several times more than previously, thereby increasing the number and the size of the shale fractures.
And the best part for senseview is that the sand is very cheap, and increased its use in hydraulic fracturing is practically worthless. The payoff is wells and, accordingly, the profit increases significantly. For example, the company EOG Resources, which actively uses new technology, now generates 700% more faults than in 2010.
Company Chesapeake pumped into wells in its Haynesville region almost 14 thousand tons of sand, this is not the limit. Until the end of the year, Chesapeake is going to go underground for another 22.5 thousand tons. Representatives of the company even came up with the name for this large-scale operation — proppant-geddon, combining words proppant (propping agent) and Armageddon.
The technical component is clear, now interested in the financial aspect. Credit Suisse analysts believe that the demand for Frack sand for Mega will increase in 2017 by almost 50% to reach 49.4 million tons, and in 2018 — to 62.8 million tons.
Companies extracting sand, which in the past subsist almost exclusively on construction orders, cheering. For example, the stock quote US Silica has soared from 16 to 40 dollars. Now the company began feverishly to buy up the sand pits near Texas.
In General, it seems that kancevica found a technology that will allow them at least to survive in an oil war with Saudi Arabia. So that the American oil and gas now will be built on sand.
