American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2021 - 62

'Wet Sand' Offers Multiple Benefits
SpecialReport: Fracturing Tech
By Brian Dorfman
and Stephen White
DENVER-Proppant usage in hydraulic
fracturing operations has changed significantly
since the advent of shale plays. In
the past 10 years, average proppant demand
per well has increased from 1.3 million to
15.1 million pounds, representing an increase
of 1,061%. This acceleration of
demand has spurred innovation toward
lower cost, increased surety of supply and
improved well performance.
A brief timeline of the progression
begins in the 1970s, when large sand
concentrations were pumped using highly
viscous (and possibly damaging) gels.
The late 1990s were defined by a race
for conductivity. Proppant quality became
paramount with a movement to manufactured
ceramic and bauxite proppants
known for their strength, sphericity and
smoothness to enhance fracture conductivity.
Immediately following that movement
was the tight gas boom, which
started in the Barnett Shale, where rocks
were so impermeable (10s-100s of nanodarcies)
that fracture fluids and proppants
took a backseat to placement with slickwater-termed
" lite " sand fracs.
Eventually, completion designs of
the day migrated from tight gas into
tight oil plays. Higher frac conductivity
came back into style with a movement
toward more sand and more viscous
fluids. This was accomplished using
light gel or viscous friction reducers in
very large volumes, with more proppant
per lateral foot. Operators' desire to
pump higher volumes of sand in each
well resulted in higher well costs in an
environment that did not necessarily
support it. This created a unique problem
for forward-thinking suppliers to solve:
How do you meet the growing proppant
volume demand while controlling the
overall cost of the completion?
Ultimately, answering that question
led to the discovery of in-basin sand,
eliminating the cost of rail and transload
handling moves. In addition, miners found
ways to reduce the amount of processing
that sand undergoes. The increase in
proppant consumption per well, along
with modern last-mile delivery methods-
including hopper bottom trailers and containerized,
modular delivery-also has
spurred innovation in the method and
62 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
mode in which frac sand is transported
and stored at the well site. The confluence
of these innovations in both proppant selection
and proppant transportation has
led to large cost savings, helping to lower
break-even costs across North American
unconventional basins.
In-Field Wet Sand
The next evolutionary step in frac
sand delivery is now at hand: the combination
of in-field mining and wet sand
delivery. In-field mining is the progression
of in-basin " local mines " to " infield "
or " hyperlocal " mines either in
the field where wells are being fractured
or less than 15 miles away from active
well job sites.
Taken separately, wet sand and in-field
mining each provide benefits, but together,
they unlock substantially more value for
both the sand mine operator and the oil
and gas well operator. Wet sand allows
for lower capital expenditures when building
the mine, as well as lower operating expenditures
over time. Wet sand also provides
surety of supply at the mine and in delivery
to well site, and drives environmental,
safety and governance improvements at
both the mine and well site.
The combination of wet sand and infield
mining generates even more benefits,
including:
· Locking in sustainable savings by
localizing the last-mile supply chain;
· Significantly reducing emissions in
frac sand mining and transportation; and
· Reducing employee silica dust exposure
at both the mine and well site.
With the emergence of " in-basin " supply
over the past five or so years, lastmile
logistics quickly displaced rail transportation
costs to become the second
largest cost component of a well completion.
The average well needs 325 truckloads
of sand delivered as just-in-time
inventory. These truckloads all have to
be delivered safely and as efficiently as
possible while operating under the following
conditions: variable nature of the
demand at the well site, limited well site
inventory, long transit times, and transit
variability (i.e., bad weather, traffic, road
closures, load-out congestion).
Frac efficiency has continued to make
significant strides. Notable improvements
in technology and procedures include
improved pump technology, evolution
of equipment on the high-pressure side,
and the proliferation of simulfrac and
superfrac completion designs. These improvements
have decreased the number
of days necessary to complete a well.
This has led to last-mile frac sand
providers needing to have more trucks
and drivers to safely and efficiently keep
pace with the frac job.
The unprecedented surface efficiency
increases of a modern fracturing fleet
have exposed holes in conventional thinking
about sand logistics. The sporadic nature
of well site sand demand can cause significant
nonproductive time if not balanced
in real time. Eliminating the drying process
with an in-field mine opens the door to
solving numerous operational and logistical
challenges of a modern frac job.
Coming out of the pandemic, lastmile
companies are struggling to increase
trucking resources because of a shortage
of truck drivers and increased competition
from over-the-road and e-commerce giants.
Nonfarm CDL jobs (read " oil field trucking " )
were down year-over-year while at
the same time, FedEx package deliveries
were up 23%. These alternatives offer
known, consistent routes, lower maintenance
costs and the perk of sleeping at
home each night, all of which can be noticeably
absent quality-of-life considerations
in oil field work.
Case Study Comparison
In-field mining with wet sand offers
a solution to this growing operational
challenge by reducing the amount of
miles traveled, correspondingly reducing
the amount of trucks and drivers required
to keep a frac job sanded. Consider a
case study comparing the last-mile operational
differences between running a
modern high-throughput fracturing crew
from a legacy regional mine 70 miles
away from the well site versus an infield
wet sand mine located seven miles
away (Figure 1).
Among the key findings is an eyepopping
92% decrease per well in total
mileage driven. This equates to a gross
mileage reduction of 3.2 million miles
annually for an average frac fleet. This
reduction in total miles driven can be
quantified to a total reduction in carbon
dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions of
12,294 metric tons of CO2 saved per year.
Total trucks and drivers required are
American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2021

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