Hook: Using the wrong frac sand leads to reduced yield and on-site delays, significantly impacting mine productivity and profit. Pontotoc offers three proppant sand products to our customers. Read more about one of our options, 40/ 80 mesh silica sand, in this blog.
What Is the Role of Frac Sand?
Frac sand plays an essential role in fracing; it’s the proppant that holds the fissures open and provides a channel that allows oil and gas to reach the surface. The frac sand you use is critical and needs to be:
Durable
Frac sand needs to be strong enough to keep fractures open under extreme pressure. Some wells are 10,000 feet underground, which means your proppant has to be crush-resistant to hold the fractures open. The American Petroleum Institute (API) requires that frac sand can withstand stresses of 4,000 to 6,000 psi.
Chemically Inert
For frac sand to maintain its strength, each particle needs to have a uniformly round shape. This uniformity creates small openings for oil and gas to pass through.
Consistent
Hydrochloric acid and other caustic compound chemicals are used during the fracing process. Using proppant that’s chemically inert and doesn’t react with other substances increases mine productivity.
What Does 40/ 80 Sand Mean?
Mesh size is defined as the number of openings in one square inch of a screen. A large mesh number means the pores in the screen are small. Sand’s mesh size is determined by graining, and the numbers refer to the maximum and minimum grain diameters. 40/80 sand means that 90% of the sand is small enough to pass through a 40 mesh screen, but not large enough to pass through an 80 mesh screen.
Pontotoc’s 40/80 Frac Sand for Hydraulic Fracing
Pontotoc offers 40/80 mesh frac sand that’s formulated to provide high crush resistance. Our medium-density proppant sand features a uniform shape and provides a conductive pathway for oil and gas thanks to the following advantages:
- Low acid solubility that limits dust and fines generation
- High silica contact that allows elite crush performance
- High roundness and strength to withstand closure pressures of 10,000 psi
Our 40/80 frac sand meets all API standards for acid solubility and performs well under specific conditions.
Benefits of Pontotoc’s 40/80 Mesh Sand
The frac sand industry relies on Pontotoc Sand & Stone because we value customer service and our products enhance their processes. Some of the benefits of working with Pontotoc include:
Advanced Automation
We know how important load time is in the sand mining industry; that’s why we’ve implemented an innovative truck loading process that features a seven-minute turnaround time. We assign an automated bill of lading that pairs the cargo manifest with each truck’s license plate number. When your truck arrives, we scan your driver’s license plate to access the order, and they enter the pickup line. The order is weighed once the sand is loaded, and your driver then delivers the sand to your facility. Our process is efficient and safe because your driver never has to leave their truck.
High-Quality Product
Many suppliers provide frac sand that’s straight from the mine and polluted with contaminants. Pontotoc breaks the status quo by completing a strict quality assurance process that cleans the sand for immediate use once it arrives at your facility. The sand we mine is quickly transported to a washing facility that removes small particles and organic material. A decanting process then dries, sifts, and sorts the sand into different grades, and any material that’s considered unsuitable is set aside. Our industry-leading cleaning process increases your mine’s productivity and reduces expenses.
High-Quality Frac Sand for the Oil and Gas Industry
The team at Pontotoc knows that the oil and gas industry values every unit of sand they receive. That’s why we provide high-quality frac sand that’s ready for immediate use. Along with our medium-density 40/80 sand, we also source 100 and 40/70 mesh sand from our premium sandstone layers. Contact Pontotoc Sand today to learn more about our state-of-the-art frac sand mining processes.
