Efficiency during 2020’s downturn: Strategies for reducing the delivery cost to place a pound of proppant downhole

From the July 2020 edition of NAPE Magazine:

THE SHALE INDUSTRY CHANGED BEYOND RECOGNITION OVER THE LAST DECADE, and it is once again in rapid transition. While we are unsure about the nature of innovations to make U.S. shale ever more competitive, we are certain that the current downturn will drive a further reduction in $/BO — the total cost to lift a barrel of U.S. shale oil to the surface. The last decade saw a tenfold rise in horsepower, a twentyfold surge in yearly stages pumped and a fortyfold yearly proppant mass increase. U.S. oil and gas employees grew their per capita production twofold, and U.S. pumping services employees increased their proppant throughput by a factor of 8 over the last eight years.

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