Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Kaolin & clays and Unconventional oil and gas

Their prices have moved together.

Kaolin & clays (commodity) and Unconventional oil and gas (energy): 1 relationship.

How they are linked

1. Price link: drilling mud

Cost and price · Weak · Both ways

Bentonite thickens water-based drilling muds and is used heavily in shale drilling. Even so, the clay index hardly follows oil prices, with monthly moves at 0.06, as bentonite demand depends on rig activity, which lags oil prices and forms only part of clay use.

  • 0.06 monthly change correlation
  • 0.00 12-month change correlation
  • -0.03 fitted elasticity

Built from the site data on production routes, energy flows, industry value chains, input-output tables and prices.