Rail Logix (Alamo Jct.) and Superior Silica Sands LLC announced the inaugural month of the new Mega Centre sand transloading facility in Elmendorf, Texas. The Alamo Jct. Mega Centre will serve the strong demand for high-quality, Northern White silica sand as proppant for the oil and gas industry in the South Texas’ Eagle Ford shale play.
Arrow Material Services, a Sewickley, Pa.-based materials-handling company has been selected as the operator of the facility, which provides Northern White and SSS’ Native Star silica sand from SSS’ operations in Wisconsin and Kosse, Texas, respectively.
A unique feature of the logistics advantages at Alamo Jct. is its access to both the Union Pacific (UP), BNSF and Canadian National railroads, while most other terminals in South Texas only have the ability to receive trains from the UP. The facility initially opens with track capacity for 135 railcars and two flat storage buildings with the ability to carry the four primary proppant types. The total dry storage capacity will be 36,000 tons, and it will have a five-truck over scale load-out ability for efficiency in the last mile.
“Rail Logix is proud to join forces with SSS and Arrow Materials to establish a highly automated sand transload facility in support of the Eagle Ford shale play,” said Randy Bennett COO of Rail Logix. “This facility was designed for maximum efficiency, providing for reliable, on-demand release of its users railcars to interchange with Class I carriers on a 24/7 basis in a safe and economical manner. Rail Logix utilizes a web-based yard-management system and AEI readers, which provide real-time inventory control of all railcars at the site. In addition, this state-of-the-art facility has the capability of interchanging multiple unit trains simultaneously with four loop tracks currently in place at Alamo Jct.”
“The Eagle Ford has been a major market for SSS since we began producing Northern White frac sand in 2009, and our Native Star Proppants in 2008,” said Rick Shearer, president and CEO of both SSS and its parent company, Emerge Energy Services LP. “This facility will combine the unit train capabilities and on-site storage necessary for SSS to effectively supply the volume and quality of product needed for the wells of today and the future in the Eagle Ford.”
“This complex, pound-for-pound, probably offers more ‘value for money’ than any other proppant distribution terminal in the country,” said Tim Chutz, president/CEO of Arrow Materials.