Updates
July 24, 2012: see comments below; a reader sent a link to this story about CarboCeramics plant in Georgia, covering 800 acres. The reader may be correct, suggesting the site near Gladstone may not be big enough if it gets into production, rather than just distribution. A May3, 2012, update at MarketWatch, click here.
Original Post
A Houston-based company that plans to produce tiny ceramic beads from North Dakota clay now has zoning approval for a site near Gladstone.The mayor wants to see the site plan.
Carbo Ceramics received approval at the city's meeting July 9 for an 85-acre site just north of Gladstone on the east side of the Enchanted Highway.
Ceramic beads are used during hydraulic fracturing in oil production to prop open the fracture fissures so oil can flow from the dense Bakken formations. Sand is also used for the same purpose.
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A reader said he called NIDC. Their website could be down until tomorrow. Bummer. Something about a summer intern pushing a "red" button just before asking why that button had tape across it and the word "uff-da" taped on it.
Probably the same intern that typed in the 4,991-bbl IP for a CLR well a few days ago. Smile.
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For investors only: KOG is a buy. Interestingly enough, the writer has no position in KOG himself and does not plan to buy any. At SeekingAlpha.com.
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For investors only: Apple is building up a huge overseas cash horde -- currently its overseas cash stash -- currently $74 billion -- exceeds the market value of Citigroup Inc -- which I believe has something to do with banking. 
Just a quick FYI, the NDIC Oil and Gas div doesn't have any interns as far as I know. I just so happen to be the only one they have ever hired and I worked the summer for them a few years ago. It was one of the best work experiences I have had and if they can get their wages up somewhere respectable I would love to return to working for them. For an engineer they pay half of what other companies do in the area or less. If only the state had money coming in...
ReplyDeleteWhen Carbo Ceramics announced it's distribution center at Gladstone, the closeness to the proper clay for ceramics and the large acreage purchased all seemed to point toward more than distribution, but a plant. Ceramics is easier to transport to the northern Bakken than wet clay is. Locating a ceramic plant in North Dakota will help Carbo Ceramics undercut Chinese ceramics, which must have significant transportation surcharges.
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking time to comment and elaborate on some things I had considered. In the old days of my blogging I probably would have added some more detail, but whenever I opine about something or suggest something which seems to make sense to me, someone points out the error(s) of my thinking. So, unless I have specific information, or a link, I tend to be more circumspect in what I write.
DeleteBut you are exactly correct. Location suggested more than a distribution center, and, yes, if this (clay --> ceramics) works, it will likely change the Chinese market.
thanks for your posting. do you think they are going to manufacture there or just distribute? what would they use for power and could they get enough workers to run mass-scale manufacturing production do you think?
DeleteI really don't know. I have been proven wrong so many times in the past that I generally don't post my thoughts on what might happen in the Bakken.
DeleteBut I have to agree with "anonymous" who felt that a distribution center near Gladstone seems to be an unusual location simply for distribution. If only distributing sand/ceramics, Fargo and/or Minot would have made more sense. This suggests to some that more may be going on.
Carbo has much of their ceramic capacity in Georgia, where they just announced the third new plant (the other two plants are relatively new). Interesting newspaper link about Carbo's new Georgia plant:
ReplyDelete$100 million investment
75 full time jobs
300 construction jobs
http://www.themillennews.com/news/2011-08-24/Front_Page/CARBO_Ceramics_to_build_plant_here.html
Maybe 85 acres isn't big enough. That plant is huge!
Wow, that story about CarboCeramics in Georgia is very, very interesting. Thank you for taking time to write. I posted it up above in the main post. Yes, you may be correct; 85 acres near Gladstone may not be big enough! Smile.
ReplyDelete