haliburton trucks filled with sand used in the fracking process are seen on a well site leased by oasis petroleum in the permian basin oil production area near wink texas us august 22 2018 picture taken august 22 2018 reutersnick oxfordfile photo denver feb 15 reuters  with crude prices at their highest levels in years us oil drillers are trying to boost output fast but their efforts have been hit by a shortage of sand to use for fracking operations crude output is expected to hit records in parts of texas and new mexico the heart of us shale activity sand supplies are so tight that it is slowing the pace of work for some oil drillers and higher costs for sand are eating into the bottom line for others but demand is still heavy as drillers look to cash in on crude prices that this week touched 95 a barrel the highest in roughly seven years crude slid about 4 from those peaks on tuesday but remained well above 90 a barrel we cant get enough sand were running less than the number of fracking stages we could pump in a day because weve run out of sand every day said michael oestmann ceo of private equitybacked tall city exploration which operates in the permian basin of west texas the largest us shale region ultimately it will slow everyone down if it doesnt resolve itself once overbuilt and oversupplied the sand markets have been turned upside down consultancy rystad estimates that spot prices are between 50 and 70 a ton  a giant leap from prices in early teens at the start of the pandemic and sharply above last years levels of 20 to 25 per ton rystad researcher artem abramov called current prices for frack sand unheard of in the industrys modern history tight supplies will probably push sand prices even higher abramov said he estimates that one to two inbasin sand mines have been idled at any given time since december us shale production is expected to rise by 109000 barrels per day in march to 87 million bpd according to the us energy information administration the permian basin is expected to see output rise to 52 million bpd in march which would be a record and there are now 301 oil rigs operating in that basin the most since april 2020 us frackers added three crews in the first week of february boosting the total to 264 from roughly 167 this time last year according to consultancy primary vision the sand market is so tight oestmann said because fewer people have been working in the mines and there has been a shortage of truck drivers he said his company is looking to bring sand in by rail a sourcing method that fell out of fashion following the advent of local mines a few years ago the railed sand depots were busy said richard spears vice president of oilfield consultancy spears  associates of a recent trip to west texas when that source is kicking in at high volume and the local mine is full out you know youve got a challenge much of the sand being railed in is coming from wisconsin according to rystad us independent fracking firm liberty oilfield services lbrtn which recently acquired a lastmile sand delivery firm propx last week said it had seen bottleneck challenges around sand in the permian basin both in regards to availability and transportation reporting by liz hampton in denver editing by david gregorio