Mammoth Energy Services Inc. (NASDAQ: TUSK) entered multiple agreements to expand its sand operations as management tries to keep pace with strong proppant demand, the company said March 21.

The company said it would buy a Wisconsin sand mine and water and cement services companies in deals worth a combined $133.8 million paid in stock. Mammoth, based in Oklahoma City, is the latest service company to consolidate proppant supplies in a mini-sand rush.

“We are scrambling for sand,” company executives said on a March 21 conference call.

Others companies such as Hi-Crush Partners LP (NYSE: HCLP) and U.S. Silica (NYSE: SLCA) have announced deals since August.

Mammoth signed agreements to buy Taylor Frac LLC from Gulfport Energy Corp. (NASDAQ: GPOR), Rhino Exploration LLC and an entity affiliated with private-equity provider Wexford Capital LP. The company also agreed to buy Stingray Energy Services and Stingray Cementing from the Wexford affiliate and Gulfport.

Mammoth primarily serves the Appalachian Basin with various water services, rental equipment and other field operations. The company also operates in the Scoop and Stack plays in Oklahoma.

The Taylor Frac sand operation is currently sold out, with average prices in the “high $30/ton range,” Mammoth said.

Mammoth plans a $23 million expansion of Taylor Frac’s current capacity to 1.75 million tons per year (tpa) from 700 tpa by the end of 2017.

Mammoth management said part of the “urgency” to acquire Taylor was due to high demand for high-grade sand. The company has pulled back its sand shipments from customers to use in its own operations.

“We’re 45 to 60 days sold out on the finer grades,” said Mark Layton, Mammoth’s CFO. “Demand for finer grades has increased dramatically in the past couple of months.”

Mammoth said the acquisition of Taylor Frac, Stingray Energy Services and Stingray Cementing expands the breadth of its service offerings to offer customers a single point of contact for a majority of the services required to complete wells.

For investors, Mammoth’s deals diversify the company as a proppant and completion services provider.

“The addition of the Stingray Energy Services/Cementing businesses is a bit of a surprise as we had hoped/anticipated that TUSK would focus solely on its frack and sand related enterprises,” said John Daniel, a senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray.

The Taylor purchase was less of a surprise as the mine shares private-equity backing from Wexford, as does Mammoth.

Taylor Frac's facilities include a wet and dry plant located on 393 acres. At the end of 2016, Taylor had proven reserves of 37.1 million tons of high-quality Northern White Jordan Substrate frack sand. The sand meets or exceeds API standards including solubility, turbidity, roundness, sphericity and crush resistance. About 73% of Taylor’s reserves are higher-demand fine grades of 40/70 and 100 mesh.

Taylor's facilities are located on the Canadian National Railway, which provides a cost-effective solution to the Utica and Marcellus shales and Western Canada. As part of the plant expansion, the capacity of the transload facility will expand to accommodate 400 railcars per day from 200.

Stingray Energy Services operates primarily in the Appalachian Basin providing freshwater transfer, produced water filtration, rental equipment and refueling operations in support of drilling, completion and production activities.

As of March 17, the company had 250 pieces of equipment rented on 63 separate pads in the Appalachian Basin, with 27 locations utilizing Stingray Energy's refueling services.

Darren Barbee can be reached at dbarbee@hartenergy.com.