The Oilfield Technology Group (OTG) of specialty chemicals company Hexion Inc. (Columbus, Ohio; www.hexion.com/oilfield) announced the expansion of its resin-coated proppant manufacturing facility in Canada to provide a more efficient supply of proppants to fracturing service companies and operators in the oil and gas industry.
Hexion’s proppant plant located in Sturgeon County, north of Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada is in the process of a phased expansion project, which will significantly increase capacity and logistics capability to efficiently service the Canadian market. These improvements will provide significant additional manufacturing capacity to support the future growth in the Canadian proppant market. The internal plant capacity is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2016.
The expansion project includes the purchase of additional land for the installation of track that will accommodate over 100 railcars. New storage silos will ensure ample sand supplies, especially during peak seasons. Production capacity improvements will allow for quicker response to market demand and on-time delivery of product through Hexion’s industry-leading transloading network that services the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
Resin coated proppants are used in the hydraulic fracturing process to help optimize production from oil and gas wells by maximizing fracture flow capacity from the reservoir to the wellbore.
Technological innovations and Hexion’s introduction of enhanced materials have expanded the use of resin coated proppants into unconventional reservoirs that feature complex and challenging geological formations. Hexion’s experienced personnel, with their years of hydraulic fracturing knowledge and expertise, continue to bring advanced proppants to the industry.