Infill Thoughts

US Silica’s 2Q17 conference call ushered in earnings season for Big Sand Tuesday morning, and the call certainly brought the fireworks. Here are the key points US Silica made Tuesday that we found most interesting, accompanied by our take: There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the …

The combination of greater per rig retrofit investments and expanding inventory of upgrade candidates is the equivalent of newbuilding without building new. This kind of spending invites a whole crowd of previously shunned rigs into the exclusive super-spec club. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full …

Earlier this week, first Halliburton and then Anadarko roiled the water by challenging the multi-year trend of more frac sand pumped per well. What was surprising about the remarks was that they pointed to not just plateauing in the trend but a reversal. Following their remarks on inflection, some other companies have …

The discussion around plateauing (wait… make that falling) frac sand/well is heating up. What’s new and what we think about it here. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If …

Halliburton and Schlumberger have given two distinctly different outlooks on US rig count direction for the next three to six months over the past two business days. Interestingly, their arguments have departed from their normal advocacy tendencies. See how and who we agree more with in this update. There’s a …

The Permian Basin frac sand story is receiving attention from the local press out in West Texas. Some interesting incremental color emerged… feature image photo credit: Hi Crush’s Kermit site on Sunday July 24, 2017 front page of Odessa American There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see …

It’s a sign of the times. Frac sand controversy on Halliburton’s earnings conference call Monday overshadowed everything else, including some interesting points on pressure pumping dynamics, rig count brake tapping, international service pricing trends, and higher wages. We’ll address Big Red’s “non-sand” comments in a separate update later today. These …

The Wall Street Journal knows how to title a hit piece. After their article saying EnerVest is worthless, the company is scrambling to reassure its fearful supply chain. See who works for the operator and read EnerVest’s crisis management response in this update. There’s a lot more to this story… …

Staffing up the new Permian frac sand mines is a challenge we first wrote about back in May. Lately, we’ve heard and seen more sand producers highlighting the issue as a barrier to entry (example). In this update, we share the latest on who’s hiring, how they are doing it, …

On Monday, we learned that a UK frac equipment manufacturer is outperforming. Learn why and what it means for the US frac equipment supply chain in this update. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …