We were at a relative’s house in Eastern Montana this long weekend. And after a really warm Saturday, we had an impressive storm that night, with torrential rain, a bit of hail, and nearly constant lightning that lasted for around 3 hours!
Living in the mountains of Montana at high altitude, it’s rare for us to get such a lightning show for hours on end, as we did on the Great Plains this last weekend.
The power stayed on for awhile, but even it was no match for the heavenly electrical storm above the power grid, and the power at the house was out for hours.
The next morning, the power was still out, so my brother called the power company.
When my brother told the worker that power was still out in the neighborhood, the worker on the other end of the line said that it should be restored soon.
Right when he hung up, the power came on!
Now, that might just be coincidence. The workers just *maybe* completed repairs at that instant, and switched in the power. Or, perhaps it could be that they had not yet thought to switch back in the neighborhood, simply because no one told them power was out there. And, the worker reached down, clicked on a computer screen and restored that line. And the power was restored.
Now, in testing, sometimes the simplest explanations are true.
For instance, it’s often true that if sand has a low sphericity and roundness score, it likely won’t perform great under pressure during frac sand testing. That’s because the sharp corners and edges, and non-spherical particles, contribute to the particles breaking early under pressure and poorly performing on crush testing.
Sometimes, though, when testing, it makes sense to do some *follow up*. For instance, if you search the market hard enough, you might find someone that is still eager to buy the sand. Even sometimes for the frac sand market.
That is due to transportation and logistics.
A lower quality sand or mineral or ore, due to its proximity to the plant or smelter or wellhead, can be purchased simply because “it’s good enough” and it costs so much less than the premium material that’s hundreds of miles away and takes a rail car to get there.
When testing, it often makes sense to still follow through with full battery of tests so that you can go to the market and industry with those results, and see what they think.
The test results might not be great, but a phone call to the market might surprise you.
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