Infill Thinking Lifting the O&G knowledge curve

For the first time since the disruptive local sand shift began back in 2017, the total workforce employed by the US local frac sand mining industry has… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you …

Since your inbox is probably flooded with press releases and sell-side notes this week, we are zooming out to highlight these key points in oilfield water from a busy earnings week… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive …

2020 E&P capex budget announcement season is still a couple months out on the horizon, but planning is well underway for most operators at this point. Here’s some analysis and clues about where it might go…. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To …

In a data-driven update earlier this week, we noted that local sand capacity growth has stalled most everywhere with a couple exceptions. And a couple days later, here we are adding another mine in one of those exception basins! There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the …

Rough start to frac sand earnings season – a start inline with the implications of Union Pacific’s earnings a couple weeks back. US Silica’s stock performance on their earnings release this morning (-30% intraday) reminds us this morning that bad news is never priced until it happens. There’s a lot …

In past updates, we’ve shared a look at the local sand boom by “mine announced” date. Today, we are slicing and dicing the data a slightly different way to provide a look at how capacity has come online in this chart of the day update. Local sand capacity has entered …

Oilfield water continues to make for fertile soil producing a bumper crop of M&A deals. This week, a potential deal we’ve been listening for since May was announced. Separately, another E&P operator… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and …

The normal playbook for land drilling c-suite commentary at this point in the year is highlight for investors the coming reset in customer budgets in early-2020. One of them did that last week, but also went a step further… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the …

We are picking back up our Silica Valley Series today with a look at Scarco Service’s Transportation Asset Management System (TAMS) software platform. TAMS was built from an oilfield service company’s perspective to lower costs and create visibility across the entire completions cost structure. There’s a lot more to this …

We hope you find the result of our origin tracing exercise as fascinating as we did. This is a new and exciting space with lots of high quality firms growing into their boots… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update …

A recent Bloomberg article highlights several high profile examples of banker to industry leadership role transitions, but it does miss a couple big recent moves. Here are two very recent Banker-to-Industry transitions the solid third-party article doesn’t mention and a big question it raises in our mind… There’s a lot …

Digging into the public record, we’ve unearthed new details on the latest Rocky Mountain greenfield frac sand project… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to …

This week, Infill Thinking celebrates the three-year anniversary of our very first oilfield research newsletter. So much has transpired in the oilfield marketplace since we shipped Issue Number 1. Back then, the Lower 48 oilfield market was just emerging from the brutal 2014 downturn and at the cusp of a …

The picture remains about the same as it has for this entire cycle, showing a stark bifurcation between the… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new …

Halliburton reported 3Q19 earnings on Monday and the stock market ate up the cost cuts (stock was +8% intraday). We thought it was notable that CEO Jeff Miller focused much of his opening remarks on international. Halliburton is known more for their NAM footprint, but growth areas get airtime and …

It’s been almost a year since this sand producer filed a quarterly or annual SEC filing. Here’s what we learned that is relevant to the broader proppant market… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

In 2H17, we estimate the Union Pacific Railroad moved about one out of every X tons of frac sand pumped in the US. Today, we estimate their trains only move about one in X tons pumped.  

Friday’s 3Q19 earnings report and conference call from Schlumberger were of much greater interest than usual for US oilfield service market participants for two reasons: …. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must …

In addition to the in-depth updates Infill Thinking published this week, we hunted down a variety of miscellaneous datapoints from around the sandpatch that are deserving of a quick mention… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our …

A quick update on some of the latest happenings and trends in the OCTG markets after a chat with our friends at Tenaris and The OCTG Situation Report… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

Here’s what comes next for Asgard’s planned Mercer County frac sand production facility per various local officials… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill …

In this weekly rig count update, we take a look at the proximity of the new Bakken frac sand mines to the core of drilling activity in the Bakken.   feature image credit: https://www.instagram.com/p/_47y_4vhtd/ There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this …

E&P M&A is heating up again this week with another Merger Monday. One of yesterday’s deals gave us a chance to hear from management on two hot industry topics… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research …

Action against an industrial plant has read-through to Texas local frac sand mining… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership …

This weekend, the Grand Forks Herald newspaper in North Dakota published a story titled: “Sand deposit could be ‘game-changer’ for ND oil industry.” Five weeks ago, Infill Thinking broke the news about a frac sand plant starting up in the Bakken. Here is a link to Infill Thinking’s original piece …

Plus 2 Permian wellsite storage competitors in one week!! Earlier this week, we reported on a new arrival in the Permian Basin’s last mile market. Today, we’ve been able to confirm new details about still another new competitor’s arrival in the Permian Basin…. There’s a lot more to this story… …

There’s a multi-parcel land auction scheduled for later this months that is likely to turn some heads in the Permian Basin – both in the ranching community and in the O&G industry. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and …

For those looking to learn what exactly happened, yesterday’s communication is likely to be seen as a disappointment. Here’s what stood out as we read the SEC filing… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

We shine our spotlight on a Eagle Ford drilling leading indicator after our recent trip to the basin to gather firsthand market intel… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. …

Last Friday, Oilfield Water Connection hosted industry leaders from across the country at the Houston Petroleum Club to talk about the rapidly evolving competitive landscape in full-cycle oilfield water management. Before the event, we shared 7 pre-conference questions were were hoping to gain perspective on. Asked and answered, the following …

After hearing from sand hauling contacts about a new last mile solution deploying in the Permian, we had a chance to catch up with the company to learn more about their activity in West Texas and the Lower 48… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the …

The best analogy we can think of for the frac sand market at the moment is that it is smack dab in the middle of the eye of the hurricane. In strong tropical cyclones, the eye is… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  …

About This Series Infill Thinking’s Aqua Men series brings the fast developing oilfield water management sector to life. This business has historically been dominated by private companies and internal divisions with E&Ps. Chronicling the sector’s leading platforms and projects lends fresh perspective to the once-in-a-generation shift now underway in oilfield …

From 1996 to 2011, John was an executive at US Silica with his tenure culminating as Chief Executive Officer. Today, he is the Industrial Sand Division Director at NSSGA, and he wrote in with an update on what this industry advocacy group is doing in the Nation’s Capital these days… …

Our guest author today formed a sand hauling outfit with just a couple trucks in early-2015, just as oil prices began to plunge. He has spent his entire life in and around trucks, and has a genuine passion for the trucking industry that is evident in the “state of the …

With the materialization of this lawsuit, we highly recommend revisiting this piece of Infill Thinking research from July… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to …

The Oilfield Water Connection’s Industry Update Conference this Friday October 4 is sold out with north of 170 attendees expected. The speaker line-up of industry executives and analysts is poised to deliver an important update on business conditions in the space – this will be a great learning opportunity. On …

Each Friday in the last month of each quarter, we pass our keyboard to an Infill Thinking member to weigh in from their field. We don’t pay for these pieces and we don’t get paid for publishing them. In fact, we promptly reject anything that looks like a commercial. Our …

In 2019, doing more with less continues to be a key oilfield theme. Frac and rig crew efficiency gains, more zippers, bigger pads, and streamlined logistics all mean that E&Ps are getting more sub-surface contact out of the same or less contracted oilfield equipment on the surface. The result? A …

  There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has expired, please email us to discuss our current subscription options at [email protected] (Current …

During 3Q19, the Infill Thinking research team: published 90 written research updates emailed 24 Infill Thoughts newsletters to active members issued 15 data releases to Think Sheets® members conducted site visits the Eagle Ford and acted as MC for the largest frac sand conference in the industry, hosted by the …

With Morgan Stanely also pushing an M&A narrative this week, Paul’s piece is timely. Paul’s been making the case for consolidation in E&P for about two years… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you …

Yesterday morning, a letter announcing the closure of of a huge pneumatic hauler crossed Infill Thinking’s research desk. Due to the gravity of the letter, we waited to publish it until we were able to confirm its authenticity with the company. We confirmed that it is genuine this morning after …

Infill Thinking has obtained a statement from Goodnight Midstream in the wake of the M&A termination. CEO Patrick Walker told Infill Thinking… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If …

Here is the latest new oilfield market participant to weigh in on the debate on the future of in-basin sand. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are …

We had a conversation with a frac sand supplier this morning that went alot like many others we’ve had with contacts in the supply base recently… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must …

Food for thought. The one thing we do know with certainty is that change is the only constant we’ve ever been able to rely on in the oilfield marketplace. While some big step changes have been made over the past 15-20 years, there are always more to come… In this …

In this update, we share our thought progression upon seeing talk implying that a new frac pump design might be considered to be an “e-frac killer.” There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must …

Well… the Saudi drone strikes did nothing to curb the unyielding US rig count decline last week. The chart below maps the major basins year-to-date to see where the pain’s been the greatest. Marketing MidCon rigs is such a tough sell right now that it might take the swagger right …

Infill Thinking has confirmed that an LOI on a sales agreement has been signed on a West Texas ranch at the center of a bidding war, family controversy, and the oilfield water frenzy. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update …