![]() ![]() ![]() “We specifically looked at roundness and sphericity, grain size and chemistry,” said UGS geologist Andrew Rupke. In a study commissioned by SITLA, the Utah Geological Survey analyzed sand from 60 sites around the state and found promising sources in southwest Utah’s eolian sand dunes. They must withstand the powerful forces associated with fracking, a property known as “crush resistance.” Facets and impurities can render sand useless if the grains collapse. The best sand for fracking comes in rounded, spherical grains, about 0.5 to 1 millimeter in diameter. Now exceeding 2 miles, horizontal wells reach ever greater distances, also increasing the amount of sand needed per well. The need for sand is also expected to grow as fracturing technologies improve, extending the reach of cracks that need to be propped, according to the U.S. ![]() Demand is expected to exceed 100 million tons this year as drill rigs return to work in response to rebounding prices, putting an intense crimp on supplies that could delay the coming drilling boom. ![]() Industry’s use of sand doubled to 61.5 million tons between 20 but dropped off with the collapse in oil prices. Once the formation fractures, the chemical cocktails are sucked out, leaving behind the sand as “proppant” that keeps the cracks open so the hydrocarbons can flow up the well. Sand plays a vital role in the fluids that are injected under intense pressure into bore holes drilled horizontally through oil and gas deposits. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, said at a legislative interim meeting this month. “It will create a lot of jobs and generate a lot of money,” Rep. Locally sourced frac sand could not only save industry millions in transportation costs, but also bring economic benefits to another corner of rural Utah. Transportation represents more than half the sand’s cost at the wellhead. The Great Lakes region produces 70 percent of the nation’s sand for fracking, with Wisconsin accounting for half the total. The industry’s use of sand has soared, prompting drillers to accept greater variation in the sand used, according to Faddies. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has become a controversial drilling method over concerns it imperils groundwater, but it is credited with spurring a surge in domestic oil and gas production. It’s our job to get these things in production,” said Tom Faddies, who oversees mineral production for the state agency that manages land to raise money for schools. “I am thrilled Utah is finally looking at home for frac sand. Officials with the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, or SITLA, are pleased with the prospect of producing such sand from its holdings, which in turn would support oil and gas production from its mineral holdings in the Uinta Basin. He said one, Integrated Sands LLC, controls claims and leases for sand on 12,000 acres of state trust and federal lands in Kane County, which it hopes to develop. Martin’s firms provide oil-field, transportation and marketing services to Utah’s oil and gas industry. “We are calling this ‘Utah pink Champagne.’ The Wisconsins have nothing on us.” Martin, president of Salt Lake City-based Integrated Energy Cos., told conference attendees. “We have some of the best frac sand in the country,” J.T. Gary Herbert’s Energy Summit in Salt Lake City. Utah energy developers must acquire their “frac sand” from Wisconsin quarries, which hold an abundance of clean silica grains of the right size, shape and hardness, a material known as “northern white.” But now alternative sources are under exploration in southern Utah’s Kane County, potentially opening the West’s first major quarries of sand needed for fracking operations.Ī 12,000-acre area in Kane County could yield enough to meet the needs for Utah energy developers for 40 to 50 years, according to energy industry representatives speaking last month at Gov. Getting the sand is not easy or cheap, but relief might be on the horizon. Industry has discovered that more sand results in higher yields. They mix the sand with the fluids and chemicals injected underground to fracture rock formations and unlock the hydrocarbons they contain. A trainload of sand, enough to fill 50 or more rail cars, can disappear down a single bore hole when drillers frack oil and gas wells in eastern Utah’s Uinta Basin. ![]()
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