Proppants: Are You Getting What You Pay For?

By Penny Aschenbrenner Q: What do oil companies and sand mines have in common?A: Proppants and profits. The following information describes the crippling inefficiencies of proppant quality control and how it affects the bottom line for sand mines and oil producers. We’ve come a long way since 1866 when the first “exploding torpedo” was used downhole to fracture shale. That…

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BMC to Construct New Transload Facility in Texas

A plot of land just south of Pecos, Texas, will become home to the newest transload facility for Badger Mining Corp. (BMC) in the coming months. Sitting on the Pecos Valley Southern Railway, which connects to the Union Pacific in Pecos, the nearly 300-acre site will accommodate 120 railcar spots after Phase I of construction is complete in early 2017.

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U.S. Silica to Acquire Sandbox Enterprises

U.S. Silica Holdings Inc. announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Sandbox Enterprises LLC, a provider of innovative logistics solutions and technology for the transportation of proppant. The transaction will be financed using a combination of $75 million of cash on hand and approximately 4.2 million U.S. Silica common shares.

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This Week’s Market Buzz

Smart Sand Partners (SSLP) is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Hi-Crush Partners and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), with a record-breaking IPO. Like the previous two fracking sand MLPs, SSLP produces Northern White frac sand from sand mines and a processing facility in Wisconsin. Its integrated facility has on-site rail infrastructure and wet and dry sand processing facilities,…

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Wildcat Opens Ohio Facility

Wildcat Minerals opened a new frac sand and proppant-transloading storage facility in Hannibal, Ohio. The expansion into this key unconventional play will allow the company to store more than 10,000 tons of proppants, receive barges and unit trains and further enhance its position as a premier national materials handler of oilfield consumables.

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