Infill Thinking Lifting the O&G knowledge curve

Last week, Hi-Crush said on their 4Q19 earnings call that January 2020 was the strongest month of sand sales in any January in company history. This datapoint is inline with our recent stream of reporting on stronger than expected frac activity – and sand demand – starting with this update …

A large E&P operator has firmly planted a legal flag of conceptual ownership in damp sand. This raises lots of questions for the broader adoption of the practice, including applications in in-field frac sand mining… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read …

This earnings season, a morbid data set is emerging from the shadows and becoming visible. Everyone in the oilfield is well aware of the reduction in force (RIF) trend that swept across the US onshore oilfield last year and continues this year. But the true extent of the damage has …

New pictures and a schematic have come to light as one of the first movers on the in-field mining trend continues making moves. 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. …

We live blogged our key takeaways from a critical TX RRC report release via webinar on Tuesday afternoon February 19, 2020… 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 …

Today we are giving readers a look behind the curtain at an important part of our research process. We’ve summarized the key themes we believe will be highly influential in shaping oilfield market fundamentals in 2020. Until now, these ideas have just lived on our whiteboard and post-it notes… There’s …

There are new developments today in the Uintah Basin local frac sand story. Our analysis of the new facts that have come to light can be found here… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

This week, we put a spotlight on drilling activity trends in the Canadian rig market… 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 …

Listening to the FTSI call this week, here’s what stood out to us as far as market intel takeaways for the Lower 48 pressure pumping market… 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 other research we’ve posted this week, here’s an assortment of interesting odds and ends that crossed our desk and will be of interest to Infill Thinking members… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive …

This week, we had a chance to catch up with another mobile mini plant pioneer to learn about their approach. This is the third mobile mini plant provider we’ve profiled since writing a deep dive on the theme a month ago, which got folks talking and has drawn out new …

With fewer greenfield projects actively under construction now than at any time in the past three years, we believe that nameplate capacity activations at large-scale fixed local frac sand plants are mostly in the rear-view mirror now. Here’s a data-driven assessment of local sand mine activity in the Lower 48, …

While waiting for deal flow to pick back up, we dusted off our water M&A database this week. 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 look at a leading indicator in a key southwest market is the subject of this weekly rig count data spotlight.. 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 …

This week, two large pressure pumpers hosted 4Q19 earnings calls. Here are our takeaways from their remarks as it pertains to the 2020 pressure pumping market…     There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

2019 was a record year for M&A deals in oilfield water. Will 2020 be able to keep up the pace? 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 …

If you are at HFTC or NAPE in Houston this week instead of the Permian Basin, count your lucky stars. If you are in the Permian on Wednesday, there’s a high probability you are: a) trying to reschedule your trip (or your meetings) because all flights have been cancelled b) …

In a meeting on Wednesday morning, county officials approved the latest… 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, …

We are able to put some important context around the first newsbyte about Hi-Crush’s mobile mine solution beyond their official announcement about the new division launch last week. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

  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 …

Permian sand plant staffing reductions effectively de-rated production capacity in 4Q19. The trend in this chart helped set up the supply crunch we’ve dubbed Sandemonium when customer budgets reset seasonally in January… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and …

It’s been a week and a half since we first reported “Sandemonium” when the Permian surprisingly “ran out” of 100 mesh frac sand. Here’s an update on where things stand today followed by our answers to the most common questions Infill Thinking members are asking us as this situation continues …

This morning both Chevron and Exxon hosted conference calls. These are our key takeaways… 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 …

Every once in a while, laughter is the best medicine. So on a Friday when disruption potential is once again at the top of mind for the collective frac sand industry, we offer the following bit of levity. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full …

Since we first published this in-depth primer on Jan. 17, 2020 about the “in field” frac sand mining opportunity, the industry’s public conversation about mobile-mini plants has gone from zero to sixty in a heartbeat. We have begun to hear directly from other first movers with their own mobile-mini plant concepts. These solutions …

On Tuesday, we hosted 50+ Infill Thinking members for coffee and conversation at one of our favorite Houston coffee houses. Special thanks to the Siphon Coffee team and patrons for letting us invade your space and putting up with us – we sort of took over the place! The event …

Hundreds of oilfield decision makers came to our member meet-ups in 2019 (these are included with your subscription). Will you be there when the industry’s smartest minds and leading executives gather again with us in 2020? Login to get the details on our first gathering of the new year and …

From strength to strength in January for this important West Texas drilling activity indicator.. 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 …

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. …