Texas-Size Glut of Frack Sand Means 19% Drop in Prices
- West Texas developers overbuilt capacity as fracking slowed
- Midwest miners continue to lose market share to Texas rivals
Photographer: Rachel Woolf/Bloomberg
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Just a year after rushing into America’s busiest oil field with new mines, frack-sand producers may have overdone it.
West Texas sand used in the hydraulic fracturing process will drop 19 percent this year to about $30 a ton compared to 2018, according to industry consultant Rystad Energy AS. Sand pricing is a key financial input for oil explorers because fracking is the most expensive phase in drilling an oil well.