Description

Those giant pyramids of sand at every frac site exist for one reason, and it turns out the industry might be quietly running short on the good stuff. Curtis Wilie and Josh Johnson of Superior Energy Services break down how a coal byproduct called fly ash is shaking up the proppant game, why something three times finer than sand outperforms it, and how pulling forgotten barrels from legacy wells could matter more than drilling new ones. Plenty of analogies, zero shame about the dumb questions.

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00:00  Why there's sand everywhere on a frac site
01:00  How hydraulic fracturing actually works
04:00  River frac in the 1930s and the search for the right proppant
06:00  The sand economy and a looming supply squeeze
09:00  Where sand comes from and the Permian conveyor belt
16:00  Meet EcoReach: fly ash instead of sand
19:00  Lighter, stronger, finer, and how it travels farther
21:00  Unlocking micro fractures and trillions of trapped barrels
25:00  Sourcing ash from coal plants worldwide
29:00  Walnut shells, steel balls, and other proppant experiments
30:00  Skipping the blender and pumping at six barrels a minute
33:00  Flowing like water and getting 90 percent of fluid back
35:00  The floor jack analogy for frac initiation
37:00  The godfather story and balancing the proppant triangle
43:00  Who's adopting it and the case for refracs

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