Black Mountain Sand, a Texas-based in-basin frac sand provider, announced today expansion into Western Oklahoma’s Mid-Continent. Construction is now underway on its sixth mine, the first outside of Texas. Once fully commissioned, the 1,290-acre Blaine County facility will employ 75 people and produce 3 million tons of sand annually. Delivery of the mine’s first commercial tons is anticipated to begin by mid-January 2019.
With the addition of the Mid-Continent mine, Black Mountain Sand is now the largest in-basin sand provider in the nation with an annual combined production capacity exceeding 19 million tons. It is also the only in-basin provider serving three of the most active basins in North America: Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian and Anadarko Basins. With Houston-based research firm Seaport Global Securities estimating total 2019 frac sand demand at 115 million tons, the company’s annual production capacity equals 16.5 percent of the market.
“Since shipping our first truckload of sand in January 2018, our customers began asking for more. To help meet this demand, we first expanded into the Eagle Ford Shale while also increasing our annual capacity in the Permian. Today’s move means we can now deliver our product’s cost-savings benefit to our customers with operations in Oklahoma, helping strengthen their bottom line across multiple projects in multiple basins,” says Rhett Bennett, founder of Black Mountain Sand.
The E&P industry’s adoption of in-basin frac sand has been widespread and rapid, driven by significant cost savings gained from a simplified supply chain. In-basin sand eliminates costs and delays related to shipping sand by rail, resulting in more dependable and timely access while helping reduce the total cost per well up to 10 percent.