Price Of Fracking Sand Could Go "Parabolic" -- Mike Filloon

Mike Filloon at SeekingAlpha.

I first addressed better source rock stimulation in November of 2012. EOG Resources pioneered fraccing shorter and wider fractures.

Before this, operators were trying to create longer fracs in an attempt to garner increased shale surface area contact deeper into the shale. It was believed this would maximize recoveries, but it also created issues. Longer fractures are further from the well bore. This distance is difficult to bridge, as it has to push proppant over a greater distance. Less proppant is secured in the fractures and this increases crushing and closure of those fractures. This significantly decreases EURs. Thinner fractures also have less surface area, which creates greater pressures. These greater pressures require more resilient ceramic proppant, which is approximately 10 times more expensive than sand. Since EOG Resources creates shorter, wider fracs, it reduces that pressure allowing for the use of all sand fracs. The increased void created by this completion design requires more proppant.

In some cases, these wells use up to a million pounds of sand for every 1000 feet of lateral. EOG first used this in the Eagle Ford and Permian Basin.