• Canadian industrial silica sand demand is projected to rise 6.7 percent annually to 9.81 million metric tons in 2022. Growth will be driven by the need for frac sand by oil and gas suppliers, who rely upon this sand to boost the productivity of existing wells. This and other trends are presented in “Global Industrial Silica Sand, 4th Edition,” a new study from The Freedonia Group, a Cleveland-based industry research firm. Hydraulic fracturing will account for 82 percent of industrial silica sand demand in Canada in 2022. Increased sand utilization per well, and drilling techniques such as longer laterals and tighter frac clusters will account for gains in this market. The fastest increases for frac sand demand will occur in newer and smaller Canadian provinces such as British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
• Source Energy Services Ltd. is updating its Sept. 11, 2018, announcement that it had entered into an agreement with a multinational exploration and production company to name Shell Canada Energy as the customer. Under the three-year agreement Source will provide Shell with Northern White frac sand for its Duvernay wells. The committed service agreement will commence Jan. 1, 2019, and can be extended beyond the initial term of the contract to support Shell’s growing Canadian operations.
• Analyst Joseph Triepke with Infill Thinking said there is a risk that there will be too many Texas mines in the near future, possibly as soon as the end of this year, and that they’ll start competing with each other instead of with sand from Wisconsin. “Right now they’re displacing disadvantaged sand from far away, tomorrow there’s a chance they could be displaced,” he said.