Some comments.
This is the first time I have actually ever seen ceramic proppants.
When we got out of the car to look at the sacks close up, I almost slipped and fell. The proppants are extremely slippery. In my hand, my first thought was this is just like graphite lubricant. Perfectly spherical, almost too small to see individual spheres, they are that small. They leave no ash, dust, or discoloration on the hand with casual inspection. Something tells me with heavy handling, the hands become very gray.
Moon dust?
Below: This was the only sign of security in the area. Had this sign not been there, I would have picked up one of the sacks and put it in the trunk of our sedan. I walked into the area around the sign: I saw no "watchman on duty." I saw no video camera. I neither saw nor heard any dog. Something tells me that even if you walked off with a bag of Chinese ceramic proppant, you would a) have no use for it; and, b) have no one to sell it to.
To give you an idea of how much this stuff is handled (transferred). This sand is brought in on boxcar. Unloaded by forklift. Load on flatbed semi trailer by forklift, delivered to warehouse east of Halliburton (dirt road down the hill from Halliburton's "old" yard. Not affiliated with Halco but they do use it. Unloaded by forklift and put in or around warehouse. When it's going to the field it's cut, dumped onto conveyor and loaded into pneumatic trailer, then finally delivered to the field. WOW. And at one point it had to be put in those bags! Nothing like the mined sand where they just load a rail car at the mine and ship it on BNSF or CP. No wonder it's so expensive.
ReplyDeleteOne wonders if a ceramics proppant processing plant would ever be (re)-established in the US?
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese proppant obviously comes in by railroad from the West Coast. I know CRR used to truck their proppant in from Texas, and now, of course, there's Black Cat out of Fort Worth. I don't know if that comes in by truck from Texas, or if somehow they bring it in by railroad, though it would be a bit circuitous without direct north/south rails. But they do get oil from the Bakken to the south on rail, so I assume the same for proppant coming north.
http://thorsoil.com -- Here's another ceramic that's being shipped by rail to ND. (I'm not affiliated so this is not my advertisement. Just thought you could add it to your prop page)
ReplyDeleteThere is a plant being built at Douglas ND by Carbo
ReplyDeleteThank you.
ReplyDeleteHexion is another proppant producer with production plants in US/Canada as far as I know.
The Douglas, ND, location is interesting. Douglas is about 40 miles south, a bit west of Minot.
Your = You're.
ReplyDeleteMust've been public schooled here in California.
I never even caught that. Smile.
ReplyDeleteI thought you had caught one of my grammar / spelling errors.
Thanks for taking time to comment.
Is there anyone in North Dakota using ceramic proppant from China
ReplyDeleteReply aveetatradetwo@yahoo.com
Yes, Chinese proppant is being used in North Dakota; there have been two or three stories on Chinese proppant in the Bakkne on this blog. I do not know which companies are using it.
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