Infill Thinking Lifting the O&G knowledge curve

There is a dark side to the booming Permian Basin frac market. This week, we followed a lead into the underbelly of the Permian Basin oilfield, investigating chatter we are now hearing about frac sand heists at transload terminals. We have now confirmed with multiple industry sources that recent thefts of …

Note: Each Friday in March, we are passing the keyboard to one of our readers to share perspective from the field. We hope you enjoy the thoughts these hand-picked contributors have to share. This week, former sell-side analyst Jeffrey Spittel joined us with a terrific look at the division in …

One of our takeaways from the Petroleum Connection’s frac sand conference in Houston earlier this month was the threat of cheap, quick supply coming online from brownfield capacity expansion. Over the past several weeks, this threat has fed investor concerns that looming supply growth will soften the frac sand market which …

Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure Inc. filed for a $100mm IPO late last week. Solaris is one of the frac sand last mile logistics companies highlighted in our deep dive report, which identified the company as a likely candidate to go public this year. Unlike some other new last mile solutions focused …

As Upstreamonline first reported and we discussed last week, Norwegian startup Borr Drilling has been sniffing around Transocean’s jackup fleet. On Monday, Borr Drilling put out a press release confirming the reports. The company says it has signed an LOI with Transocean for the purchase of 15 jackups. Transocean has not released …

In our previous weekly rig count update, we noted that Permian growth has been slowing and provided some thinking as to why. This week, Lower 48 drilling surged, printing its best weekly gain since January. But the Permian was notably absent from the party. We’ve got charts, stats and analysis on …

Earlier this week, we published an in-depth look at Encana’s Davidson pad in the Permian. 64 wells are planned at this site, making it the largest full-scale development in the Permian. We believe that reader response to a report like this can often be more compelling than the report itself, for …

Note: Each Friday in March, we are passing the keyboard to one of our readers to share perspective from the field. We hope you enjoy the thoughts these hand-picked contributors have to share.     There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read …

Traveling down W FM Road 1787 south of Odessa before Hwy 349,  a well-worn dirt road wide enough for two-way traffic cuts off the main road. About two miles down this dirt road lies a monster. This is the site of Encana’s Davidson multi-well pad – a Permian phenomenon. It is the …

This morning, the Norwegian Financial daily Finansavisen reported in no uncertain terms that Aker Group, owned by Kjell Inge Røkke, is about to sell Aker Solutions to Halliburton. We have detailed analysis of the possibility including a cliff hanger question you don’t want to miss… There’s a lot more to this story… Login …

Unconventional drilling in the Permian’s Midland and Delaware Basins has been increasing at a breakneck pace since 4Q16. Horizontal rigs going back to work on Midland and Delaware formations alone account for 1/3rd of the total increase in Lower 48 rig count since September 30, 2016. Over the past five weeks or …

Reports out late-last week suggested two significant offshore drilling M&A deals were in the making. One of the deals was confirmed Monday morning. The two deals are spearheaded separately by former partners John Fredriksen and Tor Olov Troim. Fredriksen’s deal is deepwater, Troim’s is a shallow water play. John Fredriksen …

This earnings season has been rough on the sand stocks. The sell-off appears to be the classic case of a crowded trade. Sand stocks we monitor had increased 433% from the bottom about this time last year. In the past three weeks (as they reported 4Q16 earnings), they’ve fallen 30%. Big Oil …

Note: Each Friday in March, we are passing the keyboard to one of our readers to share perspective from the field. We hope you enjoy the thoughts these hand-picked contributors have to share. Here is this week’s story… Why am I sitting in a hotel in Midland? It seems a …

Looking around at the headlines this morning, everyone’s talking about oil prices “plunging” or “slumping” below $50 (example). Whether oil is $49 or $51 doesn’t make that much of a difference for industry participants themselves – be they oil service firms or E&Ps they serve. To be sure, there may be …

On March 7, National Public Radio addressed the Permian Basin’s explosive growth in a broadcast airing across 900 US radio stations. Infill Thinking founder Joseph Triepke spoke with NPR for the piece, sharing industry insider perspective on West Texas drilling and frac’ing. While we gave a nod to the recovery, we …

In an unexpected announcement Monday evening, Weatherford welcomed of Mark McCollum, Halliburton’s CFO, as its new permanent CEO and director. For Weatherford, choosing between interim CEO Krishna Shivram and McCollum was a win/win. Shivram impressed everyone during his stint at the helm, but McCollum is the stronger candidate. So when the board realized …

Depending on the oilfield service or product line, we’ve heard of price increases of anywhere from 5% to 40% pushed through just in the past few months alone. As service companies look for new angles to justify higher list prices, they are increasingly pointing a finger at the labor pool. …

Supply chain inflation is a trending topic in O&G. One of the biggest debates in the oilfield today centers around the sustainability of the cost reductions E&Ps achieved during the downturn. How much was lasting process change and innovation vs. temporary supply chain price concessions? E&Ps will be far more …

Just a few months ago, US land rig management teams were still touting their long-term contracts as an asset. Highlighting backlog and term duration is a defensive posture contractors assume when operators have pricing power. Rig count can rise. Dayrates can trough. But until management teams start talking about spot …

This week, Infill Thinking attended and participated in the frac sand industry conference hosted by the Petroleum Connection. With a strong agenda, the conference attracted 150 attendees including some of the industry’s biggest executives. In this update, we are sharing some of our takeaways that confirm well established trends and consensus …

At this point, we see field development as a marketplace in the very early stages of turning around. As for a broader recovery in the deepwater markets, it’s not even the first inning yet. It’s more like the stretching routine before pre-game warm ups. There’s going to be a game, but …

On Tuesday morning, we extended an open invitation to all Infill Thinking readers: come by the Starbucks on Post Oak near the Galleria in Houston and have a coffee on Infill Thinking’s tab. We were on location writing the next big Infill Thinking story and enjoyed meeting with a great group of …

The US onshore rig count increased 3 rigs to 733 running last week. The US land rig count is now up 359 rigs from the May 2016 bottom. Much of these gains have come from the Permian, where growth is being driven by horizontal drilling in both the Midland Basin and the Delaware …

If you are subscribing, we are buying… your Starbucks drink of choice! We will be available to meet with readers and talk oilfield trends over coffee next Tuesday in Houston. Here are the details: When: Tuesday, February 28 from 7am to 10am Where: Houston Galleria area Starbucks located at Post Oak and …

After the market closed Thursday evening, Hi-Crush Partners quietly dropped the equivalent of an atom bomb on the frac sand business. In a busy press release that disclosed two other deals, Hi-Crush described in muted tones plans to build the industry’s first frac sand mine in the Permian Basin. This is …

This past weekend, we read a half dozen transcripts of earnings calls from the oil majors and national oil companies (NOCs). The big guys are all whistling the same tune. They are successfully re-engineering pending deepwater projects to fit $50 oil (and below). They are ready to clear their final investment decision …

ConocoPhillips is baffled by recent dayrate hikes by the US land drillers. And they aren’t the only operators that feel this way  we take a look at what ConocoPhillips’ CEO had to say about it and explore why the operators shouldn’t feel too bad about a few grand a day …

Next Monday at the Petroleum Club in Houston, the who’s who of the frac sand business will come together for the 2nd Annual Frac Sand Industry Update Conference. In a sign of the times, the event was oversubscribed so the venue has been expanded. By way of disclosure, we do not …

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 …

Late-last year, we introduced our Shale Executive Sentiment Index to try and gauge how management teams from drilling to service to E&P were thinking about growth in 2017. We were able to measure sentiment by quantifying the frequency of references to growth as shale executives spoke to investors. At the time …

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 …

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 …

In his debut Thursday morning, Krishna’s clear and concise vision for the company’s future greatly impressed us. He knocked it out of the park and launched the biggest turnaround story in the industry. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update …

On Wednesday afternoon, Weatherford announced that a new alliance has been formed with Nabors Industries to integrate drilling rigs and services in the US land market. This new service model is something Schlumberger has been talking about and working on for several years now. In this update, we offer our take …

A restructuring press release from Seadrill on Tuesday sent shares tumbling 29%. The press release said achieving viable restructuring would involve “significant dilution to current shareholders” and noted that the company needs a $1bn lifeline. In this context, down shares 29% is about right. But significant dilution to shareholders in a restructuring …

As we write, the US onshore rig count is breaching the 700 mark (it stood at 689 last week). In this update, we explore what happens when a rig count of 900 is reached (which could happen sooner than you might think). We dig into the details of how much …

On February 2, Weatherford’s new CEO Krishna Shivram will host his first earnings conference call as the boss of the company. This is a pivotal moment for the company. As Krishna unveils his strategic vision for the company tomorrow, he will usher in a new era, re-setting expectations for Weatherford for …

Six weeks ago, we identified last mile logistics for frac sand as a potential choke point in the 2017 recovery. Frac sand’s last mile is a tedious dance between operators, trains, trucks, pumps and thousands of tons of sand. Halliburton validated our concerns on Monday evening. There’s a lot more to this …

Last week, we came across a great rundown of oilfield leaders in specific product service lines prepared by EnergyPoint Research. For those new to oilfield services, this list is a great way to get up to speed on who does what. For those that have been around the business for …

Baker Hughes seems to be taking an assembly line approach to innovation, focusing on product launch volume as an important KPI. This is in stark contrast to Steve Jobs’ disruptive approach to innovation, where he would focus on a single game-changing idea for years at a time. We’ve recently become …

The US onshore rig count increased another 19  rigs to 689 running last week. All of this activity coming back means rigs are being moved out of the yards and into the field. This creates a veritable boom for rig movers. We uncovered some proprietary market intelligence on rig moves …