The Silica gold mine., page-2

Saudi Arabia to Lead the Market

Saudi Arabia is estimated to have over 1,000 tcf (trillion cubic feet) of non-conventional hydrocarbons, consisting of shale gas, tight gas, and ultra-sour gas, of which, only recoverable shale gas resources amount to 645 tcf. Amid the soaring domestic gas consumption and competition between various industries to source gas feedstock required to fuel the plants, Saudi Arabia launched an ambitious plan to tap unconventional gas reserves of natural gas trapped in shale and tight sands.

As a part of an ambitious domestic gas production plan seeking to double gas output over the next decade, to 23 billion standard cubic feet per day (scf/d), gas sourced from shale formations is an important contributor to meet the energy demands of the country. Until 2016, Saudi Aramco had to import ceramic proppants to hold open the fractures created.

However, in 2017, the company initiated the utilization of proppant mixture, which contains 70% sand (with 95% quartz content) and 30% ceramic proppant, which was manufactured locally, outperformed ceramic proppant using a similar design.