Frac Sand Barge Facility Near Pittsburgh Gets $638K Grant to Expand

| | |
McKees Rocks barge facility

While we don’t (yet) have hard numbers for how many shale wells were drilled in the Marcellus/Utica in 2017 versus 2016 and 2015, we’re pretty sure the 2017 number went up–a lot. Why do we think so? Because frac sand use went through the roof in 2017. Yes, drillers are using more sand to frack each well, so the numbers could reflect drilling the same number of wells using more sand–but we don’t think that explains it all. Not this much sand. McKees Rocks Industrial Enterprises operates a barge/transloading facility on the Ohio River in McKees Rocks (Allegheny County), PA. Jim Lind, operator of the facility, says sand shipments soared 200% in 2017 over previous years. Put another way, sand shipments doubled–at just this one facility! Sand is barged in to the facility from the Midwest, then loaded onto trucks and rail cars for delivery to Marcellus/Utica well sites throughout the region. Business is good. The barge facility needs to expand. Pennsylvania recognizes the facility’s value to the shale industry, so the state has just made a $638,015 grant to allow McKees Rocks to handle more barges at the same time at the 100-acre facility. That’s good for the Marcellus/Utica, and it’s good for the regional Pittsburgh economy…

Please Login to view this content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
You do not have permission to view the comments.