Soaring Shale Gas Production Fueling Demand for Low Strength Proppants

The increasing oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) activities, especially in North America, are massively pushing up the requirement for low strength proppants. According to many reports, the U.S. accounts for almost 80% of all the newly drilled oil wells in North America. Low-strength proppants are mainly used for increasing the flow of gas or oil during the hydraulic fracturing process and therefore, the demand for these substances is rising sharply because of the growing E&P activities.

Additionally, the huge technological investments being made in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) and North American regions for improving the exploration of new oil ad gas reserves are also boosting the demand for low strength proppants. Due to the rising population, urbanization, and industrialization, the requirements for energy are increasing rapidly in the region. This is, in turn, augmenting the power production, especially in the U.S. which is subsequently fueling the need for advanced technologies that will cause easier and faster E&P.

The development of advanced crude oil recovery methods and technologies is causing a huge spike in the sales of low-strength proppants across the globe. This is causing the surge of the global low strength proppants market. The market reached a value of $3,713.3 million in 2019 and is predicted to attain a revenue of $5,294.8 million by 2030. Further, the market will demonstrate a CAGR of 9.8% between 2020 and 2030.

Depending on end use, the low strength proppants market is classified into crude oil, shale gas, and coal-bed methane categories. Out of these, the crude-oil division is predicted to exhibit the highest CAGR in the market in the coming years, on account of the rising usage of crude oil and the existence of numerous unconventional oil reserves in the U.S., the U.K., Russia, and Saudi Arabia. These factors are boosting the utilization of low-strength proppants.

According to industry experts, there are currently over 400 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil in the U.S., the U.K., Russia, and Saudi Arabia. The exploration of these reserves will drive the requirement for low-strength proppants in the near future. As per the International Association of Energy Economics, “unconventional oil is projected to account for 3.0% of the global crude oil production in 2020.” Because of these reasons, crude oil exploration will rise enormously in the coming years.

Geographically, the North American low strength proppants market will demonstrate the highest growth in the forthcoming years, as per the estimates of P&S Intelligence, a market research company based in India. The surging investments being made by industry players in the development of low strength proppants and the rising natural gas and crude oil exports of North American countries are the key factors fueling the expansion of the market in this region.

The oil and gas explorers operating in the U.S. are increasingly focusing on the extraction of shale gas. As per the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the total shale gas production in the country accounted for as much as 75% of the total natural gas production all over the country in 2019. The large-scale production of shale gas in the U.S. is one of the main factors responsible for the high requirement for low strength proppants in the country.

Hence, it can be said with full confidence that the sales of low strength proppants will climb steeply all over the world in the upcoming years, on account of the rising oil and gas exploration and production activities in several countries around the world.