February 24, 2017

PropTester, Inc. and KELRIK LLC announce that the release date of the 2016 Proppant Market Report will be March 1, 2017. The Proppant Market Report is a detailed overview of the global proppant market in relation to prior years. The report will also be available at www.proppantmarketreport.com.

Since the inception of the report in 2004, demand values are predominantly based on voluntary disclosures directly from proppant producers.   Whereas proppant demand decreased from the 110 billion pounds (55 million tons) supplied in 2015, 2016 is still the third highest demand value recorded.  Similar to 2015, high intensity completions and product substitution toward lower cost natural proppants favored natural sand producers.

The more active facilities were frac sand producers with production facilities located closer to key active basins and/or those that had favorable mine yields skewed toward finer mesh sands, notably 40/70 and 100 mesh.  Demand for premium proppant (ceramic and resin coat) was significantly reduced for the second year in a row.

Notable for industry is that frac sand capacity continues to grow, and currently exceeds 250 billion pounds (125 million tons) of all grades from 65 frac sand companies.  The report further references 27 pending new sand operations, several of which are actively under construction.

The Proppant Market Report is produced by PropTester, Inc. and KELRIK, LLC. The contributing authors have over 100 years of direct experience in the production, testing, sale and use of all types of proppants. All Proppant Market Report subscribers will have access to the website at no additional cost. For further information, please contact Michelle Stribling or Amanda Chavey at (888)-756-2112 or visit www.proptester.com .