PropTester Inc. and KELRIK LLC announced the release of its 2017 Proppant Market Report. The Proppant Market Report is an annual review of the global proppant market in relation to prior years.
Proppant demand improved significantly following the two-year decline experienced in 2015-2016. “The significant rebound is a trend we have seen previously, whereby industry downturns are followed by intense demand recovery that often establish new historical highs,” said lead author Brian Olmen of KELRIK LLC. “The amount of proppant supplied grew by 79 percent in 2017 and surpassed 80 million tons (160 billion lb.), a new historical high. The significant rebound is a trend we have seen previously, whereby industry downturns are followed by intense demand recovery that often establish new historical highs.”
The frac sand segment was the primary beneficiary of the upturn as demand improved 82 percent. The sand industry consists of more than 70 producing companies operating 140 production facilities with multiple new operations under active development.
A majority of the new capacity consists of greenfield projects located in close proximity to active shale plays including the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale, but sand capacity expansions are occurring throughout the supply base such as in Canada and Wisconsin.
In addition to the customary sand, ceramic and resin-coated supplier summaries on over 120 producers, this year’s report provides a summary of work being continued by PropTester’s Proppant Transport Research Council (PTRC) and the relevance that work has in relation to completion trends involving the use of smaller mesh proppants in unconventional resource development.
Companies throughout the industry (operators, service companies, proppant and chemical providers) have dedicated resources to further study proppant behavior inside a fractured formation. Research is ongoing and will continue with the 2018 PTRC, by expanding into chemical technologies centered around proppant-carrying capabilities.
“With a vast increase in proppant demand, new technologies are focused on specialty proppants and chemicals,” said Don Anschutz, president and CEO of PropTester Inc. “Our goal is to provide third-party research on new and existing technologies to assist the industry with a better understanding of how proppant and chemicals are behaving in today’s oil and gas wells. It’s important to be actively involved in research and development projects to allow for accurate reporting purposes and future outlooks in the overall proppant industry.”
Proppant Market Report subscribers have access to an electronic copy of the confidential report, as well as access to the report at www.proppantmarketreport.com.