It is important for any mining firm to understand the necessity of contracting an experienced company for their sand hauling needs. This role is expected to increase as United States oil companies take advantage of the new mining technologies to harvest the oil in the rich shale deposits located in the middle stripe of the country.
Oil companies have long known about the rich shale deposits, which extend in a wide belt of the country starting in West Texas, cutting through the Dakotas and finally terminating in Alberta, Canada. Experts estimate that there is more oil available in this region than all of the deposits in the Middle East. However, until recent times, oil companies were not able to garner this oil due to the prohibitive mining costs. This change with the recent improvements in mining technologies, which now make it cost effective to mine oil in this region. Industry pundits hope that these operations will help relieve the United States of its dependency on foreign oil.
One of the most important of these new mining technologies is known as hydraulic fracture. With this mining technique, the overall gas production from shale resources increased from 4% in the year 2005 to 24% in the year 2012. The oilfield services company Halliburton reported in 2013 that hydraulic fracturing technology has been used in more than 1.1 million jobs. In addition, almost 90% of new onshore wells use hydraulic fracturing.
Fracturing process consists of injecting a proppant into the limestone substructure and fracturing the rock in order to produce an oil well. This proppant consisted of a precise mixture of water and sand. Different granularities of the sand made oil wells more or less prolific, depending on the surrounding geology.
This technology requires the massive amounts of sand be available for the fracturing process. It required the steady delivery of both water and sand. This was a challenge for some transportation companies who are not used to the vagaries of water & sand hauling.
The problem with sand hauling is that sand behaves somewhat like a liquid in that it shifts under motion. In this way, it is like water, which can set up waves from the motion of a moving vehicle. The lateral waves can offset the center of gravity of the truck, and can lead to the driver losing control. For this reason, it is important to have an experienced company provide this important part of the process chain.
