Infill Thoughts

Last week, we presented our business outlook for the oilfield to kick off the day at the WorkforceNEXT energy conference in Houston. This gathering is the largest for HR executives in the O&G industry each year. And attendance this year was a record high – a sign of the times. …

Current members login here to read full story… West Texas Ranchers in Winkler County know the name Black Mountain Sand well. Now, operators in the Permian are getting to know the name Black Mountain Sand. Soon everyone that cares about frac sand will know the name. The company is working on the …

Schlumberger’s position and perspective on the North American market might best be described as a love-hate relationship. Endorsing the Lower 48 onshore outlook is simply not in Schlumberger’s DNA. Even as the company describes challenges that may make the North American E&P model unsustainable, it can’t resist getting bigger in …

US tight oil activity continues to recover in a global vacuum. Since the US rig count bottomed in May 2016, international onshore drilling is essentially flat and offshore activity is down 14%. How much longer will this be the case? We share some important charts and describe how the outlook has …

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, Doug Sheridan shares some unique perspective on Weatherford’s legacy problem and potential opportunity. There’s a …

Friday was a potentially transformative day for the US frac business. Not to be outdone by Halliburton’s big news Friday morning, Schlumberger and Weatherford dropped their own bombshell Friday evening. Schlumberger and Weatherford are combining their hydraulic fracturing businesses into a OneStim JV, which will be 70% owned by Schlumberger. …

In the recent past, US and Saudi drilling programs have exhibited an inverse relationship. The Saudis ramped aggressively into the downturn, and maintained elevated drilling levels while the US rig count crashed. Now as the US is ramping aggressively, the Saudis have toned things down a bit. Feature image credit: Instagram user …

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 …