Infill Thinking Lifting the O&G knowledge curve

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 …

In this week’s rig count update, we have summarized the latest 2019/2020 US onshore drilling program outlooks, operator-by-company, picking out those rig customers who are adding, dropping, or keeping their rig counts flat. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update …

After an open records request, we’ve been able to learn some new insights about the massive MidCon reduction in force happening this week in the oilfield service industry. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

About 100 Infill Thinking members answered this open ended question in our recent 2020 Vision Oilfield Outlook Survey.  In this post, you can read their responses.. 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 …

Last week, we asked the collective Infill Thinking membership to share their views on the 2020 oilfield outlook. 145 of you answered our 23 questions. To all those that took a few minutes to contribute, thank you very much. The result is a unique, invaluable market intelligence resource. There’s a …

In these troubled times, we want to do our part to help any Infill Thinking members that may be impacted by the waves of layoffs sweeping the US oilfield. If you are an active Infill Thinking member and your position has been eliminated, we want to help. Email us at …

This is not only worth watching for upstream firms and pressure pumpers, but also water midstream firms who are counting on future produced water volumes in these areas and working out long term contracts and infrastructure investments with those contracts in mind. There’s a lot more to this story… Login …

Wow. Our members are smart! In this post, you can read their answers to one of two open-ended questions we asked in our annual year-ahead outlook survey. Login only if you want to see about 70 candid, insightful, and telling responses about the ongoing O&G downcycle… There’s a lot more …

By the time 3Q19 earnings season got underway in late-October, O&G industry executives and investors had had plenty of time to digest this little bombshell that Elizabeth Warren dropped in September. Elizabeth Warren on X (formerly Twitter): “On my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that …

We’ve complied a set of questions that are critical to determining the oilfield outlook for 2020. For any active Infill Thinking reader that completes this important survey, we will provide some pretty compelling benefits including…. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read …

While logging rig count activity trends, we take a look at the latest outlook from a leading contractor… 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 …

It probably comes as no surprise to Infill Thinking readers that 2019 has been a record year for corporate transactions involving oilfield water firms and assets. We’ve covered transactions (and potential transactions) ad nauseam throughout the year. With 2019 winding down, we paused today to reflect on the corporate transaction …

Earlier this month, the sale of the Preferred Sands Arizona mine to a new entrant came to light. In our update on the deal, we noted the transaction was not an example of the consolidation many are waiting for in the proppant supply space. This week, another similar transaction has …

Pictures posted to social media recently have the last mile community talking… here’s what we’ve been able to confirm with the parties involved. 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. …

In this update, three charts – one showing the surge of ESG interest in the oilfield and two others explaining why. The data is followed up with in-depth analysis and commentary on sentiment, investment, why it matters, who’s doing what, RFQ impacts, what oilfield niches have big ESG opportunities, and …

As the old adage and Metallica song go: misery loves company. With the US land rig count continuing to spiral downwards, it might be constructive for US contractors to commiserate with their Canadian compatriots. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this …

We listened to four public frac sand company conference calls last week. Here are the polished market intel points that we screened out from the raw feedstock of these calls. Feature image: Stack Sizer® wet sizing frac sand, courtesy of Derrick Corporation There’s a lot more to this story… Login …

Scrapping is a tough but necessary step to set the pressure pumping industry up for a return to health. It’s a key hurdle to making frac investable again. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

Relative to sand production, last mile is certainly a relative bright spot at the moment. But we submit that too many… 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 …

A deal has been reached that sees a long-standing frac sand mine change hands… 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 …

This E&P company is one of those operators that has been actively (and publicly) evaluating strategic alternatives for their water business for much of the year. We wrote about their thinking on the process in May 2019 and again last month. This week we got the latest on management’s thinking …

Another E&P is warming up to handing off their in-house water assets and could divest their water infrastructure to the third-party water midstream industry in the near-term… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you …

Taking a high-level look at upstream activity through the latest in rig count trends throughout the Lower-48. 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 …

Today we take a closer look at a costly misstep in the O&G industry’s effort to figure out oilfield water handling solutions as water midstream rapidly evolves… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you …

In this update, we’ve carefully curated eight notable frac sand market datapoints, most of which came to light in the past seven days. These are mostly skimmed from… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

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 …