Rising proppant demand in the Permian Basin has led Twin Eagle Sand Logistics LLC to launch yet another expansion of its West Texas rail facility near Big Spring.

The Houston-based subsidiary of Twin Eagle Resource Management LLC said the expansion of the Permian Rail Park is designed to meet growing fracture (frack) sand demand in the Midland sub-basin.

“The Permian Basin is the strongest frack sand demand center in the country, employing almost 50% of the active rigs in the United States,” said Twin Eagle CEO Griff Jones. “The first quarter of 2017 has been an exciting time of growth for the Permian Rail Park and our terminal network. We envision the park growing to eventually include 1,000 or more rail car spots with greater than 100,000 tons of storage.”

Twin Eagle, founded in 2010, now controls in the U.S. onshore more than 1,500 rail car spaces with nearly 65,000 tons of storage capacity.

The Permian Rail Park is on the Union Pacific Railway, about eight miles west of Big Spring. Phase One of the unit train-capable rail park, completed in February 2016, included 33,000 feet of rail track for rail-to-truck frack sand trans-loading services.

The Phase II project now underway is adding 15,000 tons of flat storage, 7,800 feet of additional rail track and a 50% expansion of the transload road. Phase III, to break ground in June, would develop a 150-acre parcel and add 30,000 tons of rail-accessible vertical silo storage. Phase III is scheduled to be completed early next year.

The 530-acre Permian Rail Park is the fifth terminal development by Twin Eagle, which also manages two frack sand terminals in the Permian for third-party customers. Twin Eagle’s other Texas sand terminals serve Eagle Ford Shale customers through the Mission Rail Park facility and the Laredo Terminal. The Evans Terminal serves Denver-Julesburg Basin customers, and it also owns the Powder River Basin Terminal in Douglas, WY.

In April Emerge Energy Services LP bought Osburn Materials south of San Antonio to expand services by subsidiary Superior Silica Sands LLC for Eagle Ford and Permian customers. Mammoth Energy Services Inc. in March snapped up three oilfield services suppliers, including a major sand operator, to feed frack crews in Oklahoma.

Also underway are proppant delivery innovations. For example, in late 2016 Hi-Crush Partners LP secured partners to help fund Proppant Express Investments LLC to develop critical last-mile logistics equipment. The business plans to provide manufacturing containers and a proprietary conveyor system to transfer proppant from in-basin terminals to the well site.