PBIOS - October 2018 - 147

mine," Wallace contends. "It's been a
whirlwind the past 18 months!"
The venture is the latest for Brigham's
team after the sale of Brigham Resources
and its southern Delaware Basin properties
to Diamondback Energy for $2.5 billion
in 2017, and the previous sale of Brigham
Exploration and its Williston Basin properties to Statoil for $4.4 billion in 2011.
After the sale of Brigham Resources,
the team rebranded itself as ATX Energy
Partners and began considering other opportunities. However, re-entering the Permian was complicated by limited acreage
availability and pricing, which remained
fairly robust even during the 2014-16
downturn. The concern was that the high
costs for quality acreage could impede
sufficient returns on private equity, says
Wallace, who was vice president of operations at ATX for three months prior to
Atlas Sand's launch, and before that, was
Brigham Resources' Delaware Basin
drilling and completions manager.
"We come from the operator side and
have a lot of relationships on the operator
side of the business," he says. "Even
most of our investor base is in the business."
Raw sand characteristics in the Permian
are either 40/70 with a crush strength
from 7,000 to 8,000 psi, or 100 mesh
with 10,000-12,000 psi crush resistance,
he offers, making the reserves a dream
come true for sales.
The company has grown from the
three original founders (Brigham, Wallace
and John Turner) in early 2017 to more
than 200 employees today. That includes
Chris Scholla, vice president of supply
chain and logistics, and Chad McEver,
vice president of sales and marketing,
who Wallace says are key to Atlas's
ability to provide full delivery services
all the way to the well site.
"We are very proud to have Chris and
Chad, and the top-notch teams they have
assembled at Atlas," Wallace concludes.
"They give us the ability to guarantee
zero-downtime delivery services to the
well site for the operators that we service
(using boxes or silos, whichever the customer prefers). They also oversee and
manage a smooth and dependable pickup
process at the plant for those customers
that provide their own delivery, which is
no small feat at more than 500 trucks per
day coming through the facility."

Black Mountain's Vest and El Dorado mines near Kermit in Winkler County are each currently capable of supplying 6 million tons of 40/70- and 100-mesh sand, and both are
under expansion. With a third, 1 million ton/year plant at nearby Monahans, the expansions will give the company 13 million tons of total annual sand production in the Permian Basin by the ﬁrst quarter of 2019.

Expanding Output
With roots in exploration and production, the Black Mountain family of companies started by Rhett Bennett and his
executive team have invested $500 million
in two mines-Vest and El Dorado-near
Kermit in Winkler County, offering 40/70
and 100 mesh "Winkler White" sand to
operators, says Chief Commercial Officer
Hayden Gillespie.
The company is selling 10 million
tons annually through two mines capable
of supplying 5 million tons each, and
both are under expansion, Gillespie says.
A third, smaller plant at nearby Monahans
will produce 1 million tons, he adds.
"By the first quarter of 2019, we will
have 13 million tons of annualized sand
production in the Permian Basin," he estimates.
The output will help supply annual
basinwide demand that Black Mountain
assesses at slightly over 40 million tons
and that Gillespie says should exceed 50
million tons in the near future as operators
sort out take-away capacity issues.
"We view that as a temporary issue
and see growth potential in the Permian
Basin as almost limitless at this point,"
he says.
According to Gillespie, Bennett recognized an emerging hydraulic fracturing
trend in 2014 in the Haynesville Shale.
As operators began favoring slickwater
over gels, treatment designs moved from

coarse to finer mesh sands. In the winter
of 2016, Bennett's team began coring
throughout West Texas to identify suitable
deposits for an in-basin sand company.
In 2017, Black Mountain Oil & Gas
sold its New Mexico assets to Marathon
Oil Corp. for $700 million and through a
partnership with NGP, a Dallas-based energy private equity fund, launched Black
Mountain Sand, which has since amassed
almost 30,000 acres through purchases
and leases, details Gillespie, formerly a
senior manager for North American sand
at Halliburton before joining Black Mountain in December 2016.
Sure enough, coarser mesh sands have
largely fallen out of favor and more Permian operators are opting instead for
40/70 and 100 mesh sands, which are
abundant in Permian sand reserves, Gillespie says.
"We have strong customers who use
both 40/70 and 100 mesh in both the
Midland and Delaware basins, and right
now we're getting the message out that
in-basin sand products can be used in
all the pay zones in the Permian," he remarks. "That is what our customers are
finding out as they trial the product,
particularly 40/70 on the Delaware Basin
side. They are making some of the best
wells using it, so we are excited about
the prospects there."
Transportation logistics include a well
site package with six silos capable of
OCTOBER PBIOS 2018 147

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