Infill Thinking Lifting the O&G knowledge curve

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 …

The Friday before last week’s drone attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure that caused oil prices to momentarily spike, Bill Edwards wrote a guest post for Infill Thinking titled Historical Oil Price Perspective & A Sober Long-Term Outlook [Friday Guest Post]. The way oil has traded in the wake of the …

Company by company timeline charts for the top injection well permitters. These charts tell us a lot and also provoke some interesting questions… Consolidation ahead? 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 …

Our latest guest post contains an important message regarding the current state and future of the E&P industry. We are bringing it to you in two pieces. This week, our guest contributor sets the stage on the current environment and tiers that have developed in the E&P industry. Next week, …

During our recent field trip to the Eagle Ford, we met with the seasoned management team of a sand company that tends to fly a bit under the radar. Here is what we learned and saw… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To …

We have learned more about an engineering tweak of large proportions… 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, …

Last month during our Eagle Ford market intel gathering trip (see the big picture highlights here), we stopped by the Signal Peak Silica frac sand production facility for a tour and meeting with management. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this …

In the ongoing legal dispute between company X and company Y over intellectual property… two notable responses from both parties to a judgement in the past 24 hours. There is also another separate and ongoing IPR dispute in the same sector between… There’s a lot more to this story… Login …

Operators still factor pretty heavily into the new injection well owner lineup, and we wonder how much longer that will be the case as many E&Ps continue to evaluate the separation of their wastewater management. A couple other interesting observations before we get to the data: There have been… There’s …

There have only been two periods of time in the past two decades with… 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 …

Sunday was not a day of rest for most folks who think about the oil and gas industry for a living. We’ve never seen so many weekend news updates and research notes hit our inbox, and for good reason. In the days (and possibly weeks) ahead, you will see countless …

In three weeks from now, on October 4 in Downtown Houston, US oil industry leaders and investors will gather to discuss oilfield water’s evolving business model, market structure, and latest trends. Oilfield Water: Industry Update delivers the most exciting produced water business topic agenda of any conference this fall season. …

Here at Infill Thinking, we are humble oilfield service guys by trade not well heeled oil price pundits. That said, we regularly talk to some of the best crude oil minds in the business. When they share noteworthy observations, we pass them along. One such oil price expert we check …

Earlier this week we shared five talking points from our sideline conversations at the Petroleum Club’s completion supply chain conference last week. We wrap up our event coverage today with these additional points from our conversations. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To …

An update earlier this week summarized some key quotes from the panels on in-basin and northern white sand at the largest completions supply chain event of the year. In this update are similar recaps of some of the more poignant statements from two other panels at the event… There’s a …

Rig count. Yep… it’s down again. It’s been X weeks since the US onshore rig count registered an uptick. Year-to-date, the US onshore rig count is down X rigs. As the unyielding drilling decline continues, it’s worth noting how… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the …

Everyone knows that you often learn just as much in the side hallways of industry events as you do in the main hall. In that vein, here are 5 interesting things that we learned in conversations with industry contacts at the event. These are pretty dense and provide plenty of …

Last week, we published a research update discussing why produced water reuse as frac fluid is on the rise and what factors might drive the next leg up in the treated water trend in fracing. The catalyst for that piece was a research project our team was conducting to update …

Last week’s three-day Petroleum Connection was the biggest event of the year in the frac sand supply and logistics industry, drawing over 500 attendees and the who’s who of the completions supply chain. The agenda was well constructed, and we tip our hats to the conference organizers for their thoughtful …

Infill Thinking participated in the Petroleum Connection’s frac sand conference in San Antonio this week. We will share a full recap of our key takeaway in a piece early next week – we learned quite a bit on the sidelines of the show as well as during several of the …

A good, quality, upstanding outfit just exited stage left. While industry-wide capacity reductions are needed, we see this news as a bad omen for the industry at large… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

The Infill Thinking team has arrived in San Antonio to participate in the biggest (and best) frac supply chain trade show of 2019, hosted by Petroleum Connection. Infill Thinking is pleased to announce our participation as an exhibitor, panel speaker, and as event MC for the first day of the …

This chain of events may end quietly with little fanfare and that’d be great. But we’ll be keeping an eye out for additional filings here as it’s not every day we see this much action on the legal disclosure front… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see …

We first learned that Wood Mackenzie had conducted an independent study on the performance of local sand downhole in a tweet from Robert Clarke, the firm’s Lower 48 upstream research director who some of you may have met at our recent member meetup in Fort Worth. Respecting Robert and Wood …

Over the past 24 months, several driving forces have advanced the upstream industry mindset on water recycling, causing reuse to rise sharply. But there’s still plenty of room to grow, and we take a look at why, where things stand now, and what’s next in water recycling. If you are …

Last week during our Eagle Ford market intel gathering trip (see big picture highlights here), we stopped by the Monarch Silica frac sand production facility situated about 20 miles due south of San Antonio. In our meeting with management at the location we learned that… There’s a lot more to …

This week, a very large carrier that hauls frac sand sent an important letter to customers. This has big market implications for the frac supply chain. In the letter, the company’s president…. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and …

In South Texas last week, we drove out to 13 local mines and 1 rail terminal. We went behind the gate with management teams for discussion and site visits at about half those locations. It was a busy couple days! Starting today, you’ll find the market intelligence we’ve gathered shared …

On the heels of yet another combination of public E&P operators this morning (PDC Energy and SRC Energy), we spent some time thinking about the expansion, peak and contraction of the public E&P universe. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this …

Analysis of the deep cuts in drilling activity across multiple basins 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, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership …

There were three notable transactions in oilfield water management this week. In two of them, a new buzzword emerged that we like and think could stick as the roll-up of legacy E&P oilfield water systems by third-party water midstream firms continues… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to …

We welcomed about 40 Infill Thinking subscribers for coffee, knowledge sharing, and networking on Wednesday in Fort Worth. This was the 16th reader appreciation event we’ve hosted in the past 2.5 years. Thanks to our highly engaged members, these events keep getting bigger and better. We also met with various …

The Delaware Basin is the epicenter of the oilfield water revolution for several reasons including its concentration of unconventional activity and high water cuts relative to other plays in Texas and the Lower 48. As a result… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  …

The rate of positive growth in Permian drilling activity began to slow down in mid-2017. It stagnated in 2018. And it has faded into contraction in 2019. Over this period, the relationship between… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update …