Another Shale-Bubble Bursts: Oil’s Plunge Is Not ‘Unequivocally Good” For This Group | Zero Hedge.
While Jim Cramer went “all-in on oil stocks” in May 2014 (right before the collapse), it was the fracking sand-providers that were the most-loved stocks on many individual investors buying lists last year… until their worlds caved in. As WSJ reports, for many sand producers, this is their first time on the bucking bronco that is the cyclical energy business—and not all of them are ready for the wild ride. As one CEO exclaimed, “there are a lot of wide-eyed people out there right now in the industry.”
Sand is an important ingredient in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which has pushed American oil output above 9 million barrels a day, rivaling the production of Saudi Arabia or Russia. Sand companies’ biggest customers used to be golf courses and glass manufacturers, but the oil boom brought energy clients to their door and now roughly 60% of business is tied to fracking, according to PacWest Consulting Partners, which forecasts sand demand.
But as The Wall Street Journal reports, now that oil prices have fallen, many fracking companies are retrenching—and that is bad news for sand producers.
