In The News & On The Road…

In The News: Marfa Public Radio Interview

Infill Thinking founder Joseph Triepke was recently interviewed by Marfa Public Radio for a feature piece on the West Texas frac sand mining rush. The piece was published on Monday August 14, 2017. Listen below, or check out the full piece here.

On The Road: A Productive Reader Networking Event In The Permian

Another Infill Thinking reader meet-up is in the books. On Monday morning, Infill Thinking was at the Midland Starbucks before sunup, settling in at a table as the guys in FR coveralls ran in and out for some jet fuel before heading to their well-sites.

Yep, Midland feels like a boom-town again folks. In every corner of every bar and restaurant, guys are talking about their latest jobs around the patch. Hotel parking lots are full of white pickups. And flying into Midland at night, we lost count of the derricks – each one lit up like a Christmas tree.

At Starbucks on Monday, Infill Thinking subscribers flowed in and out throughout the morning, and we were happy to run up our tab. We welcomed executives hailing from diverse oilfield niches including the E&P, trucking, lodging, and sand production sectors. We also enjoyed conversation with a leading area rancher who owns sand and water assets, a PhD candidate who is conducting industry research in the Permian for his dissertation, and a local reporter among other readers.

Thanks to everyone who came out!

Our conversation ranged from industry bottlenecks to local politics to water access to trucker shortages. And of course the frac sand mining rush came up. From our diverse vantage points around the coffee table, this one stat captured all of our imaginations:

We all agreed that the ramifications will be wide-ranging, meaningful and not without many challenges. Going around the table listening to each person’s perspective on how this trend will impact their business was the highlight of the morning.

As we discussed with readers at the meet-up, Infill Thinking’s coverage universe encompasses more of the oilfield than just the frac sand business. But we’ve focused on staying in front of the twists and turns of this Permian sand story so much this year because i) it is transforming a critical oilfield segment at light speed, and ii) it has been underappreciated from the beginning.

We hope to see you at our next “rigs & coffee” subscriber networking event in another tall city – Downtown Houston – in September. Stay tuned for more details coming soon…

Midland skyline feature photo credit: Blair Wells, LLC