2022 was a busy year and a good year in shale all around. E&Ps and OFS verticals in most basins enjoyed growth. With 2022 drawing to a close, here are some statistics on the member resources Infill Thinking provided during 2022 followed by a list of the most popular research …
Read More »Latest Thoughts
Hindsight Is 2022! Grading Infill Thinking’s Frac Predictions From A Year Ago
One year ago, we made 10 predictions about 2022 in this update. In this “post mortem” report, we hold ourselves accountable for the hits and misses… how’d we do? Hint, if this were an exam in school, we’d have scored a 90%! There’s a lot more to this story… Login …
Read More »Superior Silica Sands Wet Plant Returns To Full Production
The very latest on a big 4Q22 development in the Eagle Ford sand supply stack… 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 you are new to Infill Thinking, or …
Read More »Permian Flow Assurance Risk Rises – 2 Of Texas’s Top 5 Earthquakes Ever Recorded Shook The Permian In The Past Month!
The Gardendale Seismic Response Area appeared to be working… until last Friday. 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 you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has …
Read More »Jingle Bell Frac…. Stream Infill Thinking’s Oilfield Christmas Carols On Spotify, Apple Music, Or Pandora!
Re-wording and recording the holiday classics to reflect the latest oilfield trends is a Christmas tradition as old as Infill Thinking itself. For the past six years, we’ve re-written a holiday classic (or two) to reflect the spirit of the season and shale trends. Part market research, part holiday cheer …
Read More »New Video, Details & Diagrams Emerge On Atlas Dune Express
After covering a radical project’s announcement and contracts last week, we have a few more details now… 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 you are new to Infill …
Read More »Atlas IS Building Their Delaware Basin Sand Conveyor After All! Dune Express Announced Today
This is, without any doubt, the most radical logistics concept that we’ve ever seen move off the drawing board in the frac supply chain. 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 …
Read More »More Eagle Ford Sand On The Way?
A small local sand plant in the Eagle Ford about 40 miles south of San Antonio down 37 that never really did much. Is that about to change under new ownership? There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To read this update and receive …
Read More »“New Gen” Wellsite Storage Systems Are Aging As Building Has Been Sparse In The Oversupply Era
In total, we estimate that ~X% of new gen systems are now 6+ years old, while another X% are 5 years old. 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 …
Read More »Local Sand Comes Of Age – A Look At The Average Age Of In-Basin Plants Across Shale
It’s hard to believe that it has been 6 years since this happened: A Frac Sand Mine Lands In The Permian. This Could Transform The Competitive Sandscape [Exclusive Details] July 2022 was the 5-year anniversary of the opening of the Permian Basin’s first local sand plant. While some other basins …
Read More »Tracking The “Born On Date” For The U.S. Frac Fleet [Chart Of The Day]
We estimate there is about X-X mm hydraulic horsepower (HHP) available in the U.S. market. Here’s how it stacks up by age…. 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. …
Read More »Super Majors Are Starting To Show Their Cards On Higher 2023 Shale Spending
Together we estimate Chevron and Exxon are running X frac crews and X rigs in the Lower 48. We dig into their budget and production outlooks given this week. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To read this update and receive our research …
Read More »So Much For Capital Discipline Part 2… The Budgets & Costs Keep Going Up, Oil Prices Don’t
We think E&P behavior on capex this year exhibits signs of reversion to historical norms, albeit with less leverage than in the past, which is a positive sign for OFS firms because their price increases are translating to more capital not lower activity. There’s a lot more to this story… …
Read More »“No Sand November” Turns Into “Dystopian December” For Eagle Ford Sand
We update members on market conditions for sand in the Eagle Ford, where frac jobs have been delayed. 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 you are new to …
Read More »Quick Thoughts On Eagle Ford Sand Fire, Endangered Species, H2O M&A, & e-Frac Newbuilds
Four unrelated quick hits of interest in shale today are summarized below. 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 you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has …
Read More »Substitute For Organic Growth? Public E&Ps Ramped Up Their Capital Outlay Buying Private Shale E&Ps In 2022
We discuss how aggressively Publics acquired Privates in shale E&P this year… 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 you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has …
Read More »Thoughts On ProFrac’s Latest Sand Mine Purchase Deal
The wait is over to see who one of ProFrac’s M&A targets is. 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 you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership …
Read More »So Much For Capital Discipline… E&Ps Repeatedly Hiked 2022 Budgets & Completed More Wells As Costs Soared
Although E&P management teams continue to spike the football about their capital discipline on earnings calls, capital budget and spending data tell a different story in shale. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you …
Read More »Frac Sand’s BILLION Ton Decade [Chart Of The Day]
How much sand is moving these days? A lot – find context and timeline for shale consumption over a decade long view 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. …
Read More »Havoc Ahead – Permian Road Project Could Impede Oilfield Traffic For 5+ Years (Starting This Month) Before It Makes Things Better
A massive highway improvement project in the Permian could create times of havoc for oilfield traffic over the next several years, potentially resulting in downtime, decreased efficiency, and higher well costs. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To read this update and receive …
Read More »Data Note – Permian Frac Sand Supply Analysis
We have refreshed our Permian frac sand mine data (download link for latest database). Here are a few data takeaways from 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, you must be a member. …
Read More »It’s “No Sand November” In The Eagle Ford
Over the past couple weeks, the Eagle Ford frac sand market has gotten tight. Real tight. In fact, it is so tight that…. 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. …
Read More »San Antonio Sand Conference Takeaways
We very much enjoyed interacting with everyone in San Antonio for the Petroleum Connection’s sand conference this week. Congrats to the organizers on another great event and we look forward to seeing you at the next one… here are a few quick thoughts from our time here this week. There’s …
Read More »Superior Silica Sands Issues Update On Wet Plant Fire, Which Tightened Eagle Ford Sand Supply
Developing news about a big issue for the Eagle Ford sand supply stack… 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 you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership …
Read More »Public Pressure Pumper Roundup: Crew Counts & Expansion Plans
While OFS is getting credit for being disciplined and many companies across the oilfield value chain are echoing a chorus of “we are sold out”, some fleet expansion is still happening. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To read this update and receive …
Read More »Here’s What We Know About The Newest Frac Sand Entrant After A Sit Down With The PB Materials Management Team
We had a chance to get to know the latest new entrant in the Permian frac sand market a little better. Here’s what we learned… 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 …
Read More »Boots On The Ground Update Confirms New Midland Mini Mine Operations
Over the past month or two, we’ve been writing about a new mini frac sand plant in the Midland Basin. Although we haven’t been able to get into contact with the plant’s owners, we have managed to… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… …
Read More »10 Things To Listen For This Week At The Big San Antonio Sand Conference Hosted By Petroleum Connection
We look forward to meeting up with industry friends later this week in San Antonio at the big sand conference hosted by the Petroleum Connection. Here’s a quick event preview… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To read this update and receive our …
Read More »What’s PropX Up To? Tipping Boxes? Wet Sand Solution 2.0? “Sand Scorpion”? [Exclusive]
Over the past couple of weeks, posts have surfaced on LinkedIn showing a novel approach to wet sand container management from PropX (like this one, this one, and this one). Below is a slideshow with some of the videos and still shots we have seen surfacing online, followed by the …
Read More »ProFrac Still Very Positive On More M&A, But The Earnings Report Came & Went Without A New Deal Announced
We digested new datapoints from ProFrac this morning… 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 you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has expired, please email us …
Read More »Deals Announced For Two More Mini In-field Mines For The Permian… But These Might Be A Longer Term Play
More sand hyper-local sand capacity is in the works, but it might stay in the works for a while… 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 you are new …
Read More »How Much Sand Will EOG Need In Their New Appalachian Play? Who’s Frac’ing For Them & Where? We’ve Got Some Answers…
EOG’s entrance into the Appalachian market could help to tighten proppant market conditions in a railed sand stronghold. 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 you are new to …
Read More »New Proximity Damp Sand Mine Customer Revealed, Closing An Open Loop In Prior Infill Thinking Reports
Last week, we published two datapoints separately. Today, new revelations show that they go together… 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 you are new to Infill Thinking, or …
Read More »E&P Inflation Projections Given This Earnings Season Are Right In Line With Infill Thinking’s October Survey Data
How do the inflation expectations being outlined by E&Ps this earnings season compare to our recent survey results? We discuss along with company-specific datapoints in the full update… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …
Read More »Public E&Ps Have Most Of What They Need For 2023 When It Comes To Rigs & Crews (Operator-By-Operator Fleet Rundown)
We have rounded up a series of operator-by-operator fleet data…. 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 you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has expired, please …
Read More »10 Friday Follow Ups: In-Field Mine News, Damp Sand Trends, H2O M&A, Minions, Debris Fears, Permian Oil Oops, OCTG, & More…
Over the past week, multiple datapoints materialized in our channel checks, online, and in the news that extend threads begun in previous Infill Thinking research reports. We dig into some of these with quick hits here… Some, like the evolving Pioneer fleet turnover situation (which we predicted in advance) were …
Read More »Meet The Frontrunners To Replace The ProPetro Fleets Pioneer Is Releasing
Headed into 2023, the big fleet turnover changes we wrote about earlier this week have subsequently been announced. Now who will fill the void? We discuss our channel checks on the transition and why the hard part is just beginning here… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to …
Read More »4 Of ProPetro’s 6 Pioneer Crews Are To Be Released At Year-End, Confirming Prior Infill Thinking Reports
Headed into 2023, big changes are brewing in the 6-frac crew fleet that XYZ pumper runs for ABC operator (read full post for names and analysis)… 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 …
Read More »A Couple Thoughts As Permian Proximity Mines & Wet Sand Get Mainstream Attention
A big article on wet sand and “mini-mobile mines” in the press this week drove inbound from Infill Thinking members seeking data clarification on the trends. Some context on mobility and adoption rates / volume is needed here… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full …
Read More »OCTG Prices Higher For Longer After Trade Case Outcome?
Cost pressure in OCTG has already been a topic of interest…. there is a key datapoint to watch in this story headed into 2023… 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 …
Read More »A Big Permian E&P Is Rebidding Some Of The Six Frac Fleets It’s Had With A Preferred Pumper For Years
Headed into 2023, big changes are brewing in the 6-frac crew fleet that XYZ pumper runs for ABC operator (read full post for names and analysis)… 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 …
Read More »Who Else Is ProFrac Buying?
As M&A rumors swirl, we take a look at some recent disclosures that offer some interesting clues about future announcements… 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 you are …
Read More »US Silica Is Mostly Sold Out Through 2024, But Still Not Adding Sand Mines
US Silica provided positive earnings and outlook this morning. Here are 5 key points… 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 you are new to Infill Thinking, or your …
Read More »Minions On The Wellsite? Another New Storage System Emerging From Canada
New last mile system spotted… 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 you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has expired, please email us to discuss our …
Read More »Getting The Rocks Out – New Damp Sand Equipment Aims To Puts Quality Control At The Blender
With damp sand usage increasing and operators exploring novel logistics / storage concepts (example), an emerging concern is rocks and debris getting in the product, finding their way into the blender, and then breaking or wearing out frac pumps. In this update, we sat down with a new team bringing …
Read More »How Much Is The Biggest Pumper Talking About Pricing? [Chart Of The Day]
Although the mainstream press will focus on the massive spot oil price month move (shock and awe of $130/bbl post Biden’s Russian oil embargo today), it’s important to keep in mind the context of the…. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To read …
Read More »Digesting Halliburton’s Comments Today On Pricing, E-Fleets, 4Q Budget Exhaustion, & 2023 Growth
Halliburton’s conference call this morning lines up well with some of our recent research and presents a positive fundamental framework for OFS into next year (albeit with growth coming at a slower pace now)… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To read this …
Read More »War On Talent Easing In The Oilfield?
After some chatter about shale labor pressure easing a bit, we turned to the hard data for indications of workforce size and cost trends. 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 …
Read More »Liberty Sees Frac Growth Trajectory Slowing – Inline With Recent Infill Thinking Survey Results
This week, Liberty talked quite a bit about.. As a general impression… 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 you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has …
Read More »Chatter In Frac Sand Deal Rumor Mill Reaches New Heights
Chatter about potential deals is heating up… 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 you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has expired, please email us to …
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