Sand rush

摘要

If you have a sand deposit, most likely youare either mining frac sand or have givenit serious consideration. And so too hasjust about everybody who is looking toturn a buck. The reason, of course, is thatoil and gas drilling companies are usingthis specialty sand as fast as it can be made andpaying top dollar to boot. The ensuing feedingfrenzy is like that of a gold rush.Oil and natural gas drilling companies are using a technique called hydraulic fracturing to retrieve otherwise inaccessible product. It works like this: Once all of the gas or oil is extracted from a vertical-shaft well, drilling companies make horizontal shafts and pump them with a water, chemical and sand mixture under high pressure. The sand finds and holds open fissures in the earth, releasing pockets of oil or gas that are then captured at the surface. According to industry trade association American Petroleum Institute, fracking, as it's called, can recover 7billion barrels of oil and 600 trillion cu. ft. of natural gas in the United States. And at $100 per barrel for just the oil, it is easy to see why so many are trying to get in on the action.