Profits made of sand: Specialty sand market heats up as oil, gas drilling rebounds
CALGARY — Signs of the Canadian oil and gas industry’s recovery from a punishing two-year downturn are emerging in unlikely places, including fine grains of sand.
Demand for the especially round and crush-proof type of sand used to help extract shale oil and gas is climbing, as more drilling rigs get fired up and operators pump higher amounts of sand into wells, say industry watchers, who foresee a big jump in the year ahead.
“Things have really picked up,” said Thomas Jacob, an analyst at research firm IHS Markit.
Canada’s energy industry was hammered when OPEC producers hiked production starting in 2014, driving oil prices to around US$26 a barrel in early 2016. But with U.S. crude back at about US$49, demand for the sand needed for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in shale formations is also rebounding.