Welcome to InfillThinking.com. I’m Joseph Triepke, Founder and Principal Research Analyst, and I want to thank you for spending some of your valuable time here. Infill Thinking launched in 2016 to cover the US oilfield marketplace with independent research of the highest caliber. Our goal here, in its simplest form, …

Recent financing news from several large offshore drillers suggests that it is becoming more difficult for the battered sector to access the capital markets. With a wave of credit instruments approaching maturity over the next 3-5 years, the sector’s collateral ($100bn worth of newbuild rigs) is increasingly economically impaired (paybacks periods are …

OPEC’s announcement in Algeria of an agreement to curb production has the press excited about the “the first OPEC production cut in 8 years.” But we’d argue this is just more of the same as no member quotas have been set yet. We explore the details, nuances and implications here. …

Saipem won 30 years of new land rig backlog in Saudi Arabia today. In the US, we estimate about 28 rig-years of land drilling backlog have been added in total since the bottom. We compare the Saudi and US drilling markets, and estimate backlog created in the young and tender recovery. …

A quick round-up of three stories flying below the radar that we find important lessons in: i) a leading indicator of Norwegian mature field development just plummeted, ii) H&P just paid an injured rig hand $72mm, and iii) Patterson-UTI is finding it easy to return idle land rigs to work. …

Latin American deepwater exploration and development is largely driven by the two large NOCs in the region. Here lately, these NOCs have been slamming the brakes, particularly in Brazil where Petrobras is trying to recover from scandal that rivals Enron. Both NOCs are pruning their rig portfolios, resulting in negative demand for Latin American floaters. …

In news from Rowan Thursday afternoon, we observe drilling contract negotiations taking a different kind of turn. The usual dayrate, duration, and specification sticking points that operators and contractors haggle over are expanding as deal-makers seek creative solutions to downturn problems. Exclusivity is being granted by an operator in exchange for more favorable early-termination release. …

This may sound a little bit counter-intuitive, but bear with me: Patterson-UTI’s acquisition today signals that its build vs. buy strategic preference remains in tact. That’s because Patterson acquired a rig technology company this morning even though hundreds of idle land rigs are for sale as cheap as 15 cents on the dollar of build cost. …

Anadarko made a big splash on Monday afternoon, announcing the $2bn buyout of Freeport McMoRan’s deepwater GOM assets. It’s a big deal for the GOM and for Anadarko’s position in the GOM. But what we found most interesting about the announcement is how Anadarko spun the deal into an onshore growth narrative. …

In the upstream sector, carnage isn’t hard to find. In fact, we’ve all become a bit desensitized to it. But in this beaten-up oilfield, the offshore drillers stand out, not just for recent hardships but because years of austerity lie ahead. A construction overhang factors in, but that’s not the only problem facing the offshore industry. …