In an update earlier this week, we shared detailed production estimates for the seven Permian frac sand plants that we classify as open and commercialized. The obvious next question is: what’s the status of the next round of startups? We are tracking an additional 7 plants scheduled to open over …
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Another New Permian Frac Sand Plant… This One Discovered Via An Open Records Request
This one is far afield from the pack and notable for four primary reasons. Login to read this exclusive on the newest Permian in-basin frac sand mine. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you …
Read More »DSL…
Login required. 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 …
Read More »OCTG Whiplash – Section 232 Tariff Exemptions & A South Korea Deal
The winding saga of Section 232 trade policy evolution and redefinition has whipsawed the OCTG markets this year. We have the latest on what it means for buyers and sellers here… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To read this update and receive …
Read More »Just How Much Local Permian Sand Is Actually Shipping? Here Are Today’s Plant-By-Plant Production Estimates
In this update, we’ve canvassed the Permian in-basin frac sand mining scene to get a read on the timing of local sand availability. 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. …
Read More »Marcellus March Madness – Drilling Activity Is Hitting Multi-Year Highs
Back in October 2017, we noticed a spike in Marcellus well permitting and wrote in this update: “Permits surging to 24-month high, look for spuds to play catch up into 1Q18. Fast forward to today, and this is playing out as expected, albeit slightly behind our expectations on timing. In …
Read More »In Other News… Fatal Left Turn, Triangulating On The Colorado Mine, and US Silica M&A
In addition to the deeper Infill Thinking research updates published this week, three quick hits crossed our desk that are worthy of comment… 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. …
Read More »A Brief History Of Time: Data Science In Energy Edition [Friday Guest Post]
Guest Contributor Introduction From Joseph Triepke: A couple months ago, an Infill Thinking subscriber from a large oilfield service firm gave me the heads up on something exciting happening in Houston. He told me about a group called Houston Energy Data Science, or HEDS for short. HEDS is a relatively new …
Read More »Frac Hit Fear Index And Parent/Child Interference In The Tight Oil Narrative
We devote a lot of bandwith to the most pressing concerns facing tight oil development here at Infill Thinking. In the long-run, other constraints rise on the horizon. These are the big picture sustainability sort of questions for tight oil development. In this post, we list these big picture issues …
Read More »The Eagle Ford Could Be Fully Supplied By Local Sand Soon
If new Eagle Ford frac sand producers execute on the plans we’ve uncovered, then South Texas completions activity could be fully supplied with local proppant in the near future. That’s what the summation of our research suggests. In this report you’ll find a detailed data driven accounting of what we …
Read More »Meet The Next Big Eagle Ford In-Basin Frac Sand Player [Exclusive Conversation With Management]
We have the very latest on another new Eagle Ford frac sand mine after an exclusive conversation with the team backing the project this morning. This sand story is moving fast folks, and Infill Thinking is the original source of real-time coverage on the latest developments in the in-basin saga. …
Read More »Elephant In The Room: Where’s The Sense Of Urgency Around The New OSHA Regs? [New Discussion Thread]
There’s a new thread over in our members-only discussion forum. In it are observations on the new OSHA respirable crystalline silica regs that kick in just three months from now. We have some theories on why this critical issue isn’t yet getting the attention it deserves. It’s a much bigger …
Read More »A Coal Company’s Frac Sand Entrance Makes In-Basin Sourcing A Reality On Yet Another New Frontier
The tentacles of in-basin frac sand exploration continue to extend and expand, wrapping new basins up in the plans of more new entrants. We review the latest development in the in-basin frac sand trend, which has drawn in yet another new entrant, this time on a new frontier where we’ve …
Read More »Activity Upside Is In The Cards For Eagle Ford Shale Drilling
In this week’s weekly drilling rig count update, we take a closer look at Eagle Ford permitting trends. In addition, we are preparing for an upcoming Eagle Ford Shale market intelligence gathering trip. The early-April trip itinerary is taking shape and will include the following stops: There’s a lot more to …
Read More »A Permian Plant Is Not In Smart Sand’s 2018 Budget, But A Last Mile Solution Is…
Smart Sand’s 2018 budget is $85-$95mm. $71mm of that is spoken for with their Oakdale plant expansion, efficiency enhancements and routine maintenance. The $19mm remainder (at the midpoint) is where things get interesting… Will they go with boxes or silos? We think we have the answer… There’s a lot more …
Read More »The Effects Of Micromanagement On Frac Job Safety [Friday Guest Post]
These days when we ask C-level executives what keeps them up at night, labor is always at the tip of tongue. Recruiting and hiring are tough problems right now, for there are not enough experienced hands to staff all the equipment going to work this year. In this post a …
Read More »Boots On The Ground: All Our Permian Trip Quick Hits Organized By Topic
We spent the first week of February on location in the Permian Basin gathering market intelligence on the completions supply chain. In addition to taking it all in from the road this week, we have met with a variety of management teams and visited operations in the field. During our …
Read More »During A Short Ride With Atlas Sand, We Saw Firm Commitment To The Long Haul
Atlas Sand was one of six in-basin sand plants (various stages of development) that we visited in the Permian Basin in early-February. Like with our five other in-basin frac sand stops, our purpose here was simply to learn more about the company’s in-basin initiatives and document our observations. In this …
Read More »Anything To Read Between The Lines On The Roster At Today’s San Antonio Job Fair?
We highlight an interesting appearance at a San Antonio area job fair 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 Infill Thinking, or your …
Read More »Real-Time Takeaways From Liberty Frac’s First Ever Quarterly Earnings Conference Call… [Live Blog Complete]
Newly minted public frac company Liberty Oilfield Services hosted their first ever quarterly earnings call on Tuesday March 13, 2018. We are live-blogged it, and 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 …
Read More »3 Frac Sand Logistics Quick Hits: People On The Move, Silos Deploy, & Another Solution?
The frac sand logistics market is a happening place these days. Here’s a few things we’ve uncovered in the past week or so… Have you seen these yet? There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …
Read More »The Permian Rig Count Has Moved Higher Despite A Permitting Plateau
In our weekly rig count update this week, we slice and dice the latest drilling permit data in the Permian, divining clues about the future direction of the rig count in the Permian Basin and beyond. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To …
Read More »Halliburton’s Horsepower – Sensitivity Testing, Educated Guesses, And All Those Pesky Underlying Assumptions
In the table below, we start with the range of estimates we’ve heard for Halliburton’s fleet count from our contacts recently and then we walk through what that implies for HHP at various crew size levels. Here’s our sensitivity table with a few thoughts on what you are looking at …
Read More »RE-RUN: $3.5 Billion Per Year. That’s How Much Cash Permian Dune Sand Could Save The US E&P Industry [Economic Impact Study]
With the transformational impact of in-basin frac sand being written about by some of the mainstream press this week, we figured it’d be a good time to dust off our In-Basin Frac Sand Economic Impact Study published on InfillThinking.com two months ago back in early-January. If you joined Infill Thinking …
Read More »Startups. Entrepreneurship. Innovation. A Conversation With The CEO Of Seismos [Friday Guest Post]
In our typical Friday guest posts, we get to hear the perspective of one Infill Thinking member at a time. And that’s usually pretty great, but as the old saying goes two heads is better than one. This post (or conversation really), is the brainchild of two Infill Thinkers who …
Read More »Drop & Swap Staging, Post-Frac Sweeps, Permian Labs, & “Sandsplants” At The Sand Bar [Permian Points 5]
This is our fifth and final installment of Permian Points (quick notes from the road) from the first of two February trips we made to West Texas to gather on-the-ground market intelligence. Revisit Permian Points 1-4 at the links below: Permian Points 1 Permian Points 2 Permian Points 3 Permian …
Read More »Solaris Pushes The Pedal To The Metal In The Last Mile Arms Race [Live Blog Complete]
On Tuesday evening, Solaris reported 4Q17 earnings. On Wednesday morning, we live-blogged our takeaways as we listened to their conference call. 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 …
Read More »Plant Construction Updates, A Last Mile Evaluation, A 500 Truck-Per-Day Milestone, And More… [Permian Points 4]
This is our fourth installment of Permian Points – quick notes from our time on the road in West Texas in February. Permian Points 1 touched on the local sand business, including pricing and construction status updates; Permian Points 2 hit oilfield activity levels and labor; Permian Points 3 covered issues we …
Read More »Chasing Rigs Around The Basins, Through Recent Highs And Lows
In this weekly rig count update, we take a spin around the basins looking at relative performance from recent peaks and valleys. Studying rig count changes during mini-cycles within the big picture trend can illustrate the level of operator commitment to various plays and reveal drilling program volatility within each …
Read More »High Roller Sand Resumes The Ramp Up
Shortly after pressing send on an early-February 2018 edition of the Infill Thinking newsletter, we hit the road in Odessa bound for a visit to High Roller Sand’s Kermit frac sand plant. The facility had been open less than a week at the time of our visit, about four weeks …
Read More »In Other News… More Sand In The Uinta, Eagle Ford And Haynesville; An OCTG Surprise; And Last Mile Developments
Things are happening fast in the oilfield / sandpatch right now. In addition to the Infill Thinking research updates published this week, some third-party stories crossed our desk that are worthy of passing along. All links will open a third-party article in a new tab. There’s a lot more to …
Read More »The Tax “Bottom Line” – Property And Sales Tax Opportunities For The Permian Sand Rush [Friday Guest Post]
Each Friday in the last month of each quarter, we pass our keyboard to an Infill Thinking subscriber to weigh in from their field. We hope you enjoy reading these hand-picked contributions as much as we do. Guest Contributor(s) Introduction From Joseph Triepke: Today’s guest post comes to us from …
Read More »The First Truckloads Just Shipped From The 6th Permian Frac Sand Plant [Infill Thinking Exclusive]
Industry sources tell Infill Thinking that [NAME REDACTED] mine’s first truckloads are rolling out from their new frac sand plant near Monahans as you read this update. Login to see the plant’s name that is shipping and learn exclusive details about the planned ramp up here…. There’s a lot more …
Read More »In-Basin Frac Sand Adoption Is Now In Full Swing, Held Up Only By Availability
We have sorted through 1,000+ pages of E&P conference call transcripts to come up with the most important things customers are saying about frac 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 …
Read More »You Have To Be A Policy Wonk To Predict OCTG Pricing In 2018
A look at the latest import data, trade protection measures, and capacity and pricing commentary from a market leader. 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 …
Read More »5 Important Oilfield Market Takeaways From The Emerge Energy Services Call Monday
On the back of a strong conference call and roughly in-line 4Q17 results, Emerge Energy Services stock traded almost 7% higher yesterday. The following are some of our key takeaways from CEO Rick Shearer and his team’s commentary on the conference calls. These points include the latest progress on San …
Read More »Of Highways, Drivers, Chassis, Engines, And Wheels [Permian Points 3]
Here’s a Tyner Energy Tweet – good follow on Twitter by the way – that will probably resonate with anyone that has i) spent time in the Permian oilfield and also ii) seen the movie Mad Max which features a fantastical fleet of muscle trucks racing around a post-apocalyptic desert. …
Read More »Talk Among US Independents Suggests A Flat Rig Count, With Some Operators Planning Reductions
With the flurry of E&P earnings reports last week came lots of talk about 2018 drilling programs. If we had to boil down all the drilling rig market commentary we heard into a key takeaway, it’d be this: There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full …
Read More »DSL Plot Will Thicken As The TCP Is Re-Written
Here lately, the DSL has taken a back seat to other risks like trucking. But now it’s little head is popping up in the sand. Here’s the very latest on this species saga. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To read this update …
Read More »7 Signs That The Handwriting Is On The Wall For Regional Brown Sand
The Texas regional sand plants in Brady TX are very busy today. Right now it’s all hands on deck and regional brown sand plays a very important role in this undersupplied market. But will it still be “all hands on deck” in late-2018 and 2019? We’ve picked up on some …
Read More »Yesterday Wells Froze, Today Rail Cars Are Stuck, Tomorrow It’ll Be R&M, Labor & Trucking [Permian Points 2]
This is our second installment of Permian Points (oilfield service market quick hits) after devoting a full week to boots-on-the ground reconnaissance in the Permian Basin in February (revisit part one here). We met with industry contacts, visited facilities, and made observations from the road. Here are some of our key takeaways, thoughts, …
Read More »US Silica Conference Call Highlights [Live Blog Has Ended]
We live-blogged our notes and thoughts from the US Silica earnings conference call on 2/21/18… 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 …
Read More »Meet The Big, New In-Basin Eagle Ford Frac Sand Plant On The Block [Exclusive Conversation With Company]
We’ve learned exclusive details on the latest Eagle Ford in-basin new entrant after speaking with a company representative about the 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 …
Read More »Hi Crush Conference Call Highlights [Live Blog Ended]
This morning we lived blogged the Hi Crush conference call providing Infill Thinking visitors with a real-time bullet point list of takeaways. With the call ended, the live blog is done and here are our final notes from the call: There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see …
Read More »Preferred’s Monahans Frac Sand Plant Is On Track To Open Soon
A couple weeks ago, we had the opportunity to visit the construction site of Preferred Sands Monahans Frac Sand Plant. We met with the company’s president and the Monahans plant manager to learn the latest about this regional sand producer’s plans for West Texas. Here are the key takeaways from …
Read More »A Perfect Sandstorm Has Started A “Run On The Bank” In The US Completions Supply Chain
Last week, first Schlumberger and then Halliburton issued US onshore profit warnings for their completions businesses. Halliburton explicitly cited the frac sand supply crunch caused by railroad downtime as the primary culprit. Since then, we’ve had a chance to catch up with multiple private participants in this market to try …
Read More »Canadian Spring Breakup Arrives Early This Year Amid Depressed AECO Nat Gas Pricing
In this weekly rig and frac spread count update we take a close look at Canadian drilling trends. 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 …
Read More »Smart Sand Is Still In A Holding Pattern On Permian Plant Construction
This week at an investor conference, Smart Sand discussed their latest thoughts on building an in-basin plant in the Permian. 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 …
Read More »Just In Case It Hasn’t Crossed Your Desk Yet… A Notable Private Equity / Transload Deal Hit The Wires Thursday
We don’t always post links to press releases, but this deal may not be on everyone’s radar just yet… and it should be, so we are sharing it here… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To read this update and receive our …
Read More »Anyone Remember Guar? The 1Q18 Sand-By-Rail Crisis Is Kinda Like That…
The guar shortage five years ago provides a useful framework for thinking about the latest completions supply chain crisis. 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 …
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