Houston-based Halliburton will build a $20 million sand terminal in Windsor to support its hydraulic-fracturing activity in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, the company said.
Halliburton will use 54 acres in the Great Western Industrial Park, which is being developed by the Denver-based Broe Group.
Sand is a key component in fracking fluid, which is pumped into wells under pressure to fracture rock and release more oil and gas. The sand props open the tiny fissures.
There has been an increase in hydrofracturing in the basin as companies search the Niobrara formation, which is more than 6,000 feet below the surface, for oil deposits using horizontally drilled wells.
“With the increasing interest in horizontal well development in the DJ Basin, we have seen an increase in exploration and production by some of our key customers,” Halliburton senior region vice president Rick Grisinger said in a statement.
The company said the new terminal will support more than 500 employees working in the basin. Halliburton has 1,600 employees in Colorado.
Halliburton said it anticipates hiring for a variety of positions, and that information can be found at .
Construction of the sand terminal will begin by March, with operations expected to start in the second quarter of the year.
On Jan. 11, Muskett Corp., which is also based in Houston, announced that it will build a crude-oil export terminal in the Great Western Industrial Park to ship oil by rail from the Niobrara fields.
The facility will have an initial loading capacity of 5.8 million barrels a year and will a use newly constructed loop track on the Great Western Railway.
The announcement followed the acquisition by the Broe Group of 320 acres in the park owned by the Kodak Co.
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
