Resumen de Chinese ceramic proppants - not a perfect solution
The world of proppants is competitive, with new energy wells having to choose between raw frac sand, resin-coated frac sand and ceramic proppants. The competition lies in the fact that ceramic proppants deliver superior conductivity to all else, but are far more expensive.
"You can always improve conductivity [the speed at which oil and gas flows through the proppant pack back up the pipeline], but the point is that it is going to cost you more money to do it. What is really needed is a cost-benefit analysis," Terry Palisch, director of petroleum engineering at CARBO Ceramics, a leading producer of ceramic proppants, told IM.
"The way that proppants are sold into the US is through agents, and those agents buy the proppants from various manufacturing centres in China and then import it to the end user," [Don Conkle] said.
