Atlas Energy Solutions Inc. produces locally sourced 100 mesh and 40/70 sand used as a proppant during the well completion process.
Proppant is necessary to facilitate the recovery of hydrocarbons from oil and natural gas wells. One hundred percent of the company’s sand reserves are located in Winkler and Ward counties, Texas, within the Permian Basin. The company’s operations consist of proppant production and processing facilities, including two facilities near Kermit, Texas and a third facil...
Atlas Energy Solutions Inc. produces locally sourced 100 mesh and 40/70 sand used as a proppant during the well completion process.
Proppant is necessary to facilitate the recovery of hydrocarbons from oil and natural gas wells. One hundred percent of the company’s sand reserves are located in Winkler and Ward counties, Texas, within the Permian Basin. The company’s operations consist of proppant production and processing facilities, including two facilities near Kermit, Texas and a third facility near Monahans, Texas. As of December 31, 2023, the company’s Kermit and Monahans facilities had a total combined annual production capacity of 16.5 million tons.
The company also operates a logistics platform that is designed to increase the efficiency, safety and sustainability of the oil and natural gas industry within the Permian Basin. This includes the company’s fleet of fit-for-purpose trucks and trailers and will include the Dune Express, an overland conveyor infrastructure solution under construction.
Assets and Operations
The company developed its Kermit and Monahans facilities as in-basin proppant mines on approximately 38,000 surface acres that the company owns or leases in Winkler and Ward counties, Texas. The company controls 14,575 acres of large open-dune reserves and resources, which represent more than 70% of the total giant open dune acreage in the Winkler Sand Trend available for sand mining. The Monahans Dune consists of approximately 8,750 acres of premium open-dune reserves. Additionally, the company has substantial off-dune acreage at Monahans that is not included in the company’s estimated reserves or resources but that could be mined following the company’s removal of material, such as soil and unusable sand, that lies above the useable sand and must be removed to excavate the useable sand, which the company refers to as ‘overburden.’ The Kermit Dunes consists of approximately 5,826 acres of premium open-dune reserves.
Significant Innovation Projects
Second Kermit Facility
At the start of 2023, the company had one Kermit facility and one Monahans facility, each of which was capable of producing 5.5 million tons of proppant annually. In response to the increase in market demand, and also in connection with the expansion of the company’s logistics offering, the company expanded its Kermit production capacity in 2023 by adding a new facility with 5.5 million tons of annual production capacity, for a combined total production capacity of 16.5 million tons annually as of December 31, 2023.
The Dune Express Electric Conveyor System
The Dune Express, which will originate at the company’s Kermit facilities and stretch into the middle of the Northern Delaware Basin, will be the first long-haul proppant conveyor system in the world. Upon completion, the company expects the Dune Express to be 42 miles in length, capable of transporting 13 million tons of proppant annually and to have approximately 85,000 tons of dry storage within the system. This conveyor system will be strategically located to deliver proppant to the producing region of the Delaware Basin. The company expects the Dune Express to lower transportation cost and increase safety by removing trucks from public roadways, thus reducing traffic, accidents and fatalities on public roadways in the region.
The company plans to install two permanent loadout facilities near the middle of the conveyor system close to the Texas side of the Texas-New Mexico state line and at the end of the Dune Express right-of-way on BLM land near the Lea-Eddy County line in New Mexico. The conveyor system will also utilize one or more ‘mobile’ loadouts, which can be mobilized and relocated from time to time, to maximize delivery efficiencies particularly for operators pursuing a concentrated development plan in the area that is proximate to the conveyor system but not proximate to one of the two permanent loadouts connected to the system.
As of December 31, 2023, 90% of equipment and materials and 80% of installation services for construction of the Dune Express have been ordered and contracted. Additionally, the company has cleared, graded and laid caliche on the vast majority of the right-of-way and have taken delivery of approximately 150 conveyor belt sections, equivalent to approximately 57 miles of total conveyor belt and over 100 miles of fiberoptic cable. The Dune Express is expected to be in service during the fourth quarter of 2024.
Wellsite Delivery Assets
The company’s existing logistics business utilizes third-party transportation contractors, which the company supplements with its own trucks and trailers. As of February 27, 2024, the company added 120 trucks and 323 trailers to its fit-for-purpose trucking fleet, which the company expects will improve its productivity, as measured by tons per truck that can be delivered daily, compared to the throughput performance of traditional trucking assets.
Products and Services
Product
The company serves the oil and gas end markets, and the company’s sand reserves contain deposits of fine grade 40/70-mesh and 100-mesh sizes that API specifies for use in wellsite fracturing operations. This mix of finer grade sand reserves is in higher demand and meets current industry preferences. Based on the reserve report prepared by John T. Boyd Company, the company’s independent mining engineers and geologists, as of December 31, 2023, the company had 488.0 million tons of proven and probable sand reserves at the company’s Kermit and Monahans locations, and the company’s reserves were composed of approximately 53% 40/70-mesh and 47% 70/140-mesh substrate sand. Based on the company’s total annual expected production capacity of approximately 16.5 million tons as of December 31, 2023, the company estimates its reserve life to be approximately 31 years for the company’s Kermit facilities and 29 years for the company’s Monahans facility, as may be extended or adjusted for future conversions of measured, indicated or inferred resources to proven or probable reserves or any change to the company’s production capacity.
Proppant from the company’s Kermit and Monahans facilities is stored in the company’s onsite silos before transport and delivery by truck to customers’ well sites located primarily in the Delaware and Midland Basins. The company’s proppant is offered to its customers at the mine or as an integrated mine-to-wellhead solution.
Services
The company provides transportation, storage solutions and contract labor services to companies in the oil and gas industry. Transportation services typically consist of transporting product from the plant facilities to the wellsite. The locations of the Kermit and Monahans facilities are within close proximity to well activity and enable the company to deliver proppant directly to the company’s customers’ wellheads using traditional pneumatic assets, portable silos, boxes or portable conveyance systems, reducing handling costs and delivery lead times.
Permits
The company has obtained numerous federal, state and local permits required for operations at the company’s Kermit and Monahans facilities. The Kermit and Monahans operations are predominantly regulated by the TCEQ with respect to environmental compliance. The predominant permitting requirement is an active New Source Review (‘NSR’) permit for air pollution control. Both of the company’s operations have a current NSR permit which is renewable next in 2028. Other permits held by the company’s operations include Stormwater, Above Ground Storage Tank, Aggregate Production Operation, and a septic permit. A Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure plan is also active at both locations.
Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety Regulations
The company is subject to the requirements of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (‘OSHA’), and comparable state statutes that regulate the protection of the health and safety of workers.
The company’s operations and the operations of the company’s customers are subject to the federal Clean Air Act (‘CAA’) and related state and local laws, which restrict the emission of air pollutants and impose permitting, monitoring and reporting requirements on various sources.
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (‘RCRA’) and comparable state laws control the management and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste. These laws and regulations govern the generation, storage, treatment, transfer and disposal of wastes that the company generates.
In addition, the company’s operations are subject to a number of federal and state laws and regulations, including the OSHA and comparable state statutes, whose purpose is to protect the health and safety of workers.
Among the services the company provides, the company operates as a motor carrier and therefore are subject to regulation by the DOT and various state agencies. These regulatory authorities exercise broad powers, governing activities such as the authorization to engage in motor carrier operations; regulatory safety; hazardous materials labeling, placarding and marking; financial reporting; and certain mergers, consolidations and acquisitions.
Competition
The company competes with both public and private large, national producers and small, regional or local in-basin proppant providers, such as Covia Corp., High Roller Sand, Black Mountain Sand, Freedom Proppants, Hi-Crush, U.S. Silica Inc., Alpine Silica, Badger Mining Corporation, Vista Proppants and Logistics and Capital Sand Company, among others.
History
Atlas Energy Solutions Inc. was founded in 2017. The company was incorporated in 2023.