Free Thinking

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 …

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 …

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 …

One month ago, we wrote in an update to Infill Thinking subscribers that Patterson-UTI was likely to pre-announce better than expected results for 4Q16. Late Monday afternoon, the company did exactly that. Patterson-UTI said in a pre-announcement that its sales during the past quarter were 7% higher than analysts have …

In the US, the O&G industry has begun to hire staff again for the first time in two years. We snapped this encouraging photo in front of a Halliburton completions yard while touring the Permian Basin in early-December. Source: InfillThinking.com Given what we know about the ongoing recovery and a …

This holiday season is the most jolly in years for the oil and gas business. It finally feels like the tide is turning on many fronts. One Year Ago, We Predicted Everything Would Bottom In 2016 Exactly one year ago, we wrote the following outlook for another shop: As realists, we have …

Although not everyone is happy about it, we think Chesapeake’s new logo looks pretty good. Actually, really good. As reported by The Oklahoman last week, the company is rolling out a re-brand starting in January 2017, reflecting their evolution from ambitious young natural gas company (remember the blue flame in the …

While the rest of the world focused on OPEC on November 30, US operators were focused on making their tight oil wells more effective with cutting edge innovation. We spent OPEC day in Houston with 35 senior US completions executives at the Darcy Completions Forum, squarely focused on emerging technologies …

  Our regular weekly analysis of Baker Hughes rig count statistics is below, but first some campaign speech. This weekend, we are taking a break from the political rhetoric to look at drilling campaigns. For the first time in two years, the US Independents are flexing up their drilling programs. …

Although it may seem early to some, another fleet improvement cycle is underway for the US land rig fleet. We covered the specific upgrade programs of several leading land drillers last week in this post. It’s a relatively humble reconstruction cycle financially speaking, involving more discrete equipment upgrades than overhauls or …