CHESAPEAKE'S SAND STRATEGY

摘要

For a company that pumps about 4 million tons of sand per year-enough to fill Oklahoma City's Chesapeake Arena six times-it's no wonder that thoughts turned to self-sourcing when free-cash-flow neutrality and reducing debt were goals.”We have saved over this last year $100 million by supplying our own sand.That's massive for us,”Jason Pigott,executive vice president of operations and technical services for Chesapeake Energy Corp.,told attendees at Hart Energy's DUG Sand conference in April.Added benefits included reducing nonproductive time(NPT)by 92% in the last few months with no negative impact on production,he said.The accomplishments didn't require adding another division to the company's supply chain group as he originally feared.They came by adding two people with expertise to the organization,forming valuable partnerships and lots of planning.Pigott said the company's sand story is universal to everyone in the E&P business.The story was shared as operators continue to focus on costs and efficiency as they try to add value from unconventional oil and gas assets in the U.S.Chesapeake is cutting costs and shaving nonproductive time by opting to self-source sand instead of using third-party suppliers.With assets in the Powder River Basin,Mid-continent,Marcellus,Haynesville and the Eagle Ford,among other spots,the company does not take a one-solution-fits-all approach when it comes to sand sourcing.In the Powder River and Appalachia,for example,northern white sand by rail is self-sourced,while regional sand-also self-sourced-is used in the Mid-continent,South Texas and Brazos Valley.The company uses regional sand in the Haynesville,but it is vendor managed.