Infill Thoughts

In Vail Colorado last week, Credit Suisse hosted most of the publicly traded upstream industry for the firm’s annual energy summit. Between runs down the slopes, oilfield C-suites talked 2017 prospects with their investors. While service companies were in the next room over talking excitedly about raising prices, E&P management teams …

A few weeks ago, we penned an update titled: “Unintended Consequences – The Crude Price Risk Factor No One Is Talking About… Yet.” Today, we bring you two new datapoints in that narrative. As a reminder, the risk thesis begins with a pending structural transformation in an end market for the heavier …

Our last mile deep dive published earlier this week resulted in the best 24-hour period for signups during Infill Thinking’s short five-month history. We share this not to brag. Instead, we see this as confirmation that the metamorphosis in frac sand’s last mile is indeed transformative with broad implications for the industry …

Retail giant Amazon and the hydraulic fracturing business have something in common: costly and complex last mile logistics. Distributing proppant requires just as much sophistication as distributing Echo Dots, Yeti Tumblers, and Kleenex. In 2017, more truckloads of sand per well will be pumped than ever before. The frac industry is trying …

Pressure pumping is heating up fast. After reactivating two frac spreads since mid-December, Patterson-UTI revealed yesterday that it will reactivate a third in 2Q17. After it closes on the Seventy-Seven acquisition, we estimate Patterson-UTI will be the fifth largest pressure pumper in the US. That means they get calls from …

On Thursday, Patterson-UTI said it will take delivery of newbuild rigs again during 2017. In the downturn, Patterson-UTI suspended their newbuild program and last took took a delivery in 4Q15. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our …

Following the well received initial public offering floated by Keane Group (ticker FRAC) in January, ProPetro filed for their IPO on Wednesday. They take the ticker PUMP – stale oilfield comp sheets are getting a trendy new makeover. This Permian pumper is going to grow fast – sign in to read all …

There is optimism in NOV’s tone again. In this update, we share the very latest on their orders and outline what they are seeing from customers in terms of inquiries, needs, and technology demands as pockets of newbuilding return for the firs time in over two years… There’s a lot …

We are all talking about the Permian Basin a ton these days. But is this too general now? As the entire industry descends on the region, it has bifurcated into two distinct geo-markets from a surface perspective… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read …

Diamond Offshore was the first offshore driller to host its 4Q16 earnings conference call on Monday morning. In this post, we extract the most poignant statements management made on the call about the future of the offshore drilling business, identifying and corroborating some of the most important themes in the offshore …