Infill Thinking Lifting the O&G knowledge curve

Just when everyone assumed the Permian was hopelessly oversupplied with sand comes a supply crunch that will make everyone question their beliefs! 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 …

With the days of large-scale in-basin mine construction vanishing, we wonder if the miniaturization trend this chart reveals is a precursor to the rise of mobile-mini plants? There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you …

A new entrant sand miner launched last last year is quickly advancing a brand new local frac sand mine project for the Bakken through the local permitting process in North Dakota. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive …

Sustainable business models in oilfield water management will be a hot topic at The Oilfield Water Markets 2020 Conference coming up this May in Dallas. We’ll be there and hope to see many of you there… The Rolling Stone feature story on oilfield water that we flagged for our readers …

In this asset-intensive business, talent shifts are often ignored. But people matter. Talent shifts affect how business is done and competitive advantage, and here are ten moves that matter for how business is done in the sectors we cover in early 2020… There’s a lot more to this story… Login …

Here’s just what you really need to know from the Halliburton US onshore outlook provided on Tuesday morning… 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 …

A quadfecta is a set of four events. The following four items aren’t really events yet, they are futuristic concepts that we know some very smart folks with various levels of access to capital are looking at and working on at the moment. Whether any of these (or a combination) …

A datapoint this week emphasizes the disruptive impact that a combination of automation software and depressed rate sheets is having on the frac sand hauling industry as another large carrier rolls up and…. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update …

4Q19 earnings season is officially underway in the oilfield with Schlumberger’s call kicking things off this morning. Three months ago, their last earnings conference call prompted us to ask: What Is Schlumberger Going To Do With Their North America Business? Since then, we’ve all heard the speculation that… There’s a …

On New Year’s eve, we sent a newsletter. Despite the holiday, it was one of our most opened and shared newsletters of 2019. Why? It introduced a new idea with disruptive potential. Just when we all thought the frac sand was sufficiently disrupted by the advent and maturation of in-basin …

Please pardon our publishing silence over the past 24 hours or so… our research team is busy working on deep dive. One might say that our head is buried in the sand. It’s topical. It’s controversial. And it has massive implications for value creation / destruction in the frac supply …

In addition to the in-depth research we’ve published this week, several datapoints crossed our desk that advance the narrative on stories we’ve recently covered. We are sharing these followups in the five-point list below: There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this …

The widespread pandemonium we recently documented in frac sand’s last mile during Christmas and New Years has died down somewhat now that we are two weeks into the new year, according to our latest channel checks. However… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  …

In 2017, we recognized Reeves the “most drilled” and “most improved county in the Permian in this update, which we titled: “More Rigs Have Been Activated In Reeves County In 2017 Than In The Entire Bakken.” Here in 2020, we find ourselves writing a very different assessment of activity in …

In a recent year-end review, we shared our top 19 stories from 2019 in frac sand and oilfield water as measured by membership interest. Before we leave 2019 behind and fully focus on the new year, we have one more year-in-review recap for you. This one summarizes the installments in …

A couple of months ago, we analyzed the E&P industry response to frac ban rhetoric by the democratic primary candidates. We also quantified drilling activity on Federal lands, estimating that O&G wells spud on Federal Land have comprised approximately X% of US onshore drilling activity. The next logical questions to …

In addition to the in-depth updates published over the past week, these “quick hit” datapoints also crossed our desk and are worthy of a mention… 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 …

Infill Thinking first wrote about Atlas Sand’s conveyor project back in May 2019 (see point 10). The cat is out of the bag now and the mainstream media is feasting on a BLM press release about a new permit application filed by Atlas Sand. Atlas Sand isn’t commenting about the …

For the US land rig count, December 2019 was pretty mundane. Considering the downtrend in activity that dominated much of 2019 and the typical holiday headwinds that December brings, a boring month for the rig count was welcome! There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  …

2020 starts off much the same as 2019 ended in the oilfield water management industry: with M&A news. Two acquisitions were announced on Monday from undisclosed sellers (although we have heard some guesses about who one of those might be). Meanwhile, oilfield water M&A this year has a different feel …

Panic in frac sand. This is not hyperbole folks… 2020 is off to anything but a smooth start. High class problem though? Here’s what all the fuss is about…. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research …

With 2019 in the books, we spent some time over the weekend becoming more encouraged about 2020 as we updated our data on… 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. …

Bang! 2020 is off to a dynamic start. Geopolitical risk has again taken the center stage, driving out-performance in crude oil prices and oilfield equities vs. the broader market in early-year trading. And this week’s developments on the global state punctuate a big question for the US oilfield this year, …

During a dynamic 2019, Infill Thinking: shipped 100 e-newsletters to active members, shipped 45 data-driven e-newsletter to Analyst Plan members, published 370 original written research updates, hosted 4 member meet-ups in key oilfield cities, conducted 4 field trips to put boots on the ground in key oilfield markets and gather market …

In our last Friday’s in December guest post of 2019, a “reformed Northern White Sand apologist” penned an op-ed piece on disruption in the frac sand industry. It hinted at something we’ve been hearing about for several months… something could be the next disruptive wave in frac sand supply… There’s …

The oilfield industry has many similarities to sports. Both are cyclical. Both have lots of turnover in winning strategies and players. Both have their fair share of larger than life characters and dynastic franchises. And a continual evolution of best practices in both sports and the oilfield is fueled by …

In late-October, we noted that Patterson-UTI’s CEO Andy Hendricks predicted a modest increase in drilling activity in late-December. Andy might be preparing to take a victory lap now… Last week’s bounce is notable for three key reasons: it breaks… it’s bigger than… it bucks… There’s a lot more to this …

Plenty of water deal news continues to cross the wires as 2019 draws to a close. And what a year it’s been for water midstream M&A. This week deals announced by three buyers take the deal count we track up to X significant water midstream transactions in 2019 vs. only …

With lumps of coal in every oilfield stocking this holiday season, it’s easy to overlook the bright spots. There are some bright spots though. Not every E&P operator plans to slash investment next year. In fact, some are planning to increase spending, or at least talking optimistically about their growth …

If you’ve been around the pressure pumping business for a while, there’s a good chance you know today’s guest contributor. His post addresses the future of frac sand and the industry’s current struggle for sustainability in a thought-provoking way. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the …

Looking at today’s depressed stock prices for tight oil operators and declining E&P activity trends, you’d never guess that this is actually a relatively wonderful time to be an E&P operator actively developing US tight oil resources. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  …

The dust is settling on another big E&P M&A announcement in 2019, and this one has implications for related water and midstream deal processes as well as 2020 E&P capex spending in the Permian. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this …

In addition to the in-depth updates published over the past week, these 11 “quick hit” datapoints also crossed our desk and are worthy of a mention… 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 …

Each year, we celebrate the Season here at Infill Thinking by weaving oilfield trends into a Holiday Classic or two. Break out the egg nog because our songs are part parody, part market research. We enjoyed writing our Oilfield Christmas songs in 2017 and 2018, back when oilfield growth was …

As 2019 winds down, the E&P downcycle dominants discussion in the US onshore oilfield. Rig count is down 27% YTD. More tellingly, rig count fell in 43 out of the 50 weeks in the books so far in 2019. Why? Unlike in most prior downcycles, it’s not oil price in …

It’d be better for the industry to see equipment scrapped than fire sold. When the market does turn, vulture investors will be able to bid very aggressively to get jobs with the equipment they are buying for pennies on the dollar today… There’s a lot more to this story… Login …

Adapting Christmas Carols to oilfield trends is a holiday season tradition as old as Infill Thinking itself. Teasing ahead, we have written and recorded new Oilfield Christmas tracks, which will be released to active members next week (just in time for your holiday gatherings). These new releases will be as …

Cody Wickersheim writes: When Joseph Triepke asked me to write an article for Infill Thinking, I think it was intended to be a commentary on the impact each of us has felt over the past year and a half. We are losing some good folks. Many companies have become, or …

Individuals are often overlooked in this asset-intensive sector, but talent shifts can have big implications for value creation, oilfield trends, sales and competitive dynamics. They also have implications for people conducting business all across the frac value chain. Without further ado, here are… There’s a lot more to this story… …

The phrase “water midstream” has without doubt been the hottest buzzword of 2019 in shale. Last week, we collaborated with Oilfield Water Connection on an executive survey about “what qualifies a water management firm as water midstream?” Today, new insights from the survey of leading CEOs and bankers and investors …

In this update we explore a growing ESG concern associated with a tail risk involving the frac sand industry that is exacerbated when firms fall into financial distress. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

Rig count’s down big this year. How has that impacted the rig count mix by basin? 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, …

For years – even before capital discipline started trending in 2017 – Wall Street research analysts have constructed models to benchmark the effectiveness of E&P capital deployment. But what if we turn the logic around a bit and look for layoff risk indicators in the size of… There’s a lot …

Despite the ramp of multiple local South Texas frac sand mines, some recent RFQs from a handful of operators continue to ask for Northern White 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 …

As of Friday morning, our channel checks suggest that a well known frac company may be completely closing up shop, rolling up operations, selling their horsepower, and letting everyone go…. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our …

Hi-Crush unexpectedly press released the departure of CFO Laura Fulton this morning. In many ways, Laura has been… 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 …

Draconian chatter has been circulating lately in frac sand’s inner circles about leadership changes at Black Mountain Sand recently. On good authority, we believe the rumored drama is overstated. After the company’s board meeting this Thursday, we… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  …

For water midstream, which is still in the early phases of market evolution, the opportunity to make a positive difference in the water supply/demand balance is enormous. Once permanent infrastructure is in place and multiple systems become interconnected, the stage will be set to move excess produced water to… There’s …

The whole boxes vs. silos last mile market debate continues to be a regular (and often contentious) topic of conversation that surfaces often in frac sand inner circles and at sand industry events. For this update, we decided to draw on the fleet data we maintain independently in house to …

Infill Thinking readers may recall this update from October on a big Permian land auction of 13,500 acres with historical significance. This ranch has a rich O&G history dating back to the 1920s, when Gulf Oil bought leases to the ranch. From the 1920s onwards, it helped make the fortunes …