CARBO Ceramics Announces Construction of New Proppant Manufacturing Capacity and First Quarter 2010 Dividend

HOUSTON, March 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CARBO Ceramics Inc. (NYSE: CRR) announced that its Board of Directors has approved the construction of a fourth production line at the Company's Toomsboro, Georgia proppant manufacturing facility.

The Company also announced today that its Board of Directors has approved the payment of a dividend on May 17, 2010, of $0.18 per share to all shareholders of record on May 3, 2010.

President and CEO Gary Kolstad commented, "CARBO is the world leader in providing high conductivity ceramic proppant to the oil and gas industry, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to grow our manufacturing capacity in order to support and improve the investments of our clients.  The newly approved production line is designed to increase our capacity by an additional 250 million pounds per year.  When combined with the incremental capacity of Toomsboro line three (anticipated completion before the end of the year 2010), our global capacity should increase nearly 40 percent from our current level, to approximately 1.75 billion pounds annually. We anticipate completion of this fourth line before the end of 2011 at an estimated cost of $62 million."

CARBO is the world's largest supplier of ceramic proppant, the provider of the world's most popular fracture simulation software, and provides leading fracture design and consulting services. The Company also provides a broad range of technologies for spill prevention, containment and geotechnical monitoring.

The statements in this news release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding our future financial and operating performance, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  All forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and estimates, which involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements.  Among these factors are changes in overall economic conditions, changes in demand and prices charged for our products, changes in the demand for, or price of, oil and natural gas, risks of increased competition, technological, manufacturing and product development risks, loss of key customers, changes in government regulations, foreign and domestic political and legislative risks, the risks of war and international and domestic terrorism, risks associated with foreign operations and foreign currency exchange rates and controls, weather-related risks and other risks and uncertainties described in our publicly available filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  We assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

SOURCE CARBO Ceramics Inc.