U.S. Silica

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Sand/Proppant | U.S. Silica

Proppant Giant U.S. Silica Explores Splitting Company in Two
October 7, 2021October 7, 2021

Sand is big business. Just ask U.S. Silica, the largest proppant/sand provider for the oil and gas industry. Sand, as you may know, is used in fracking new shale wells. LOTs of sand is used. Sand (and alternatives like synthetic beads) is called “proppant” because it’s mixed with water, blasted into cracks in shale rock, and when the water returns to the surface the sand remains behind in the cracks and “props open” the tiny cracks to allow oil and gas to escape. The biggest such sand company in the country, U.S. Silica, announced yesterday that it is exploring separating the company’s non-oil & gas division into a separate company and selling it.
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Sand/Proppant | U.S. Silica | West Virginia

CIG Logistics Buys Sand Transload Terminal in WV from US Silica
March 20, 2018March 20, 2018

CIG Logistics is a company in the business of moving sand used in fracking from point A to point B. CIG owns and operates a series of transloading terminals, along with trucks to deliver sand to well sites. A transloading terminal is a place where sand arrives via one form of transportation, say on a rail car, and leaves via another form of transportation, like a truck. U.S. Silica is the country’s largest sand producer. U.S. Silica also owns some of its own transloading terminals. CIG announced yesterday it has cut a deal to buy three U.S. Silica transloading facilities–two in Texas and one in the Marcellus, in Marshall County, West Virginia. CIG claims that with this deal they have become the “preferred transload provider to U.S. Silica” in the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford in Texas, and the Marcellus Shale via the facility in WV. Terms of the deal were not disclosed…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Sand/Proppant | U.S. Silica

US Silica 2Q16: So-So Quarter, Buys Frack Logistics Company
August 9, 2016August 9, 2016

Last week U.S. Silica, one of the largest frac sand providers in the U.S., issued their second quarter 2016 update last week. Frac sand providers are a good barometer for when/if drilling is coming back. You don’t order sand unless you’re drilling wells. The company lost $12 million in 2Q16 versus losing $10 million in 2Q15. However, $1.1 million of that was due to “restructuring costs.” What about revenue? Revenue was $117 million in 2Q16 versus $147.5 million in 2Q15. So we can sum up 2Q16 as “so-so.” Not terrible, not good. With luck, 3Q16 will look better (with drilling beginning to pick up). However, in a sign that U.S. Silica believes the market will come back, they also announced last week they are buying out Sandbox Enterprises, “a leading provider of innovative logistics solutions and technology for the transportation of proppant used in hydraulic fracturing in the oil and gas industry.” That’s a sure sign they think oil and gas is coming back…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Sand/Proppant | U.S. Silica

U.S. Silica Introduces New Resin-Covered Sand for Fracking
February 12, 2016February 12, 2016

A key ingredient in fracking is a “proppant” like sand. But not just any old sand. The sand used in fracking typically used in fracking is silica and comes from the Midwest–Wisconsin and other states. U.S. Silica is one of the largest sand companies in the world. Strangely enough, it’s headquartered in Maryland. Proppants are so-named because after being washed into fractures the sand stays behind to “prop open” the cracks, allowing oil and gas to escape from shale. Always looking for an edge, particularly against competitors that manufacture ceramic proppants, U.S. Silica recently announced a new resin-covered sand product line…
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Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | Statewide MD | U.S. Silica

U.S. Silica Getting $55K from Maryland to Expand HQ
June 21, 2013June 21, 2013

From the “we never knew this, how very interesting” department: U.S. Silica, one of the country’s largest sand and proppant companies providing frack sand to drillers around the country, is headquartered in…anti-drilling Maryland? Yep–HQ for U.S. Silica is Frederick, MD–not all that far from both Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. Maryland, like New York, is currently in the long, slow process of shooting itself in the head on the issue of fracking and shale drilling (see Food & Water Watch Pushes for Fracking Ban in Maryland).

Anywho, although Maryland doesn’t want drilling in the state, they’re happy to enable it in other states. The City of Frederick and the state of Maryland want to keep U.S. Silica (and its jobs) in place and are willing to give them $55,000 to do it…
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Columbiana County | Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | U.S. Silica

US Silica Opens New Frack Sand Storage Facility in Ohio
October 4, 2012October 4, 2012

U.S. Silica, the country’s second largest domestic producer of commercial sand, announced yesterday they’ve partnered with S.H. Bell Company to open a new silica sand storage facility (railroad transload facility) in Columbiana County, Ohio to serve drillers in the rapidly expanding Utica and Marcellus Shale plays.

From the press release:

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Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | U.S. Silica

New Deal Brings Midwest Sand to Marcellus/Other Shale Areas
June 22, 2012June 22, 2012

Sand is a key ingredient in the hydraulic fracturing process. A special kind of sand, referred to as crystalline sand, is injected into cracks made during fracturing and stays in the cracks, propping them open so the gas can continue to come out (which is why it’s called a “proppant”). More sand will be on the way to the Marcellus and Utica region due to a new agreement between U.S. Silica, the nation’s second-largest sand producer, and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). CP will be the exclusive rail shipper for U.S. Silica’s new frack sand facility being constructed in Wisconsin.

From the CP press release announcing the exclusive deal with U.S. Silica:

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