Infill Thinking Lifting the O&G knowledge curve

The great local sand rush of 2017-2018 has clearly slowed down here as sand prices have dropped into a trough (we estimate Permian FOB mine prices are down some 65% y/y). What’s going on with operations though? Is more sand still to come? We take a look in this data-driven …

A contingent of the Infill Thinking team ventured into the heart of the Marcellus/Utica play last week to gather some boots on the ground intelligence. Here are some of the things we saw, heard and learned on our trip. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update …

Following our Appalachian oilfield trip last week, we are shining a spotlight on Marcellus / Utica drilling and completions trends in this edition of our regular weekly rig count.   There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a …

We screened the universe of large oilfield service customers looking for indications of elevated risk. For oilfield service firms and suppliers, it matters who you are doing business with. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. …

Shares of XYZ water company are ripping Friday morning after… There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) Members get Exclusive research update newsletters High-caliber, data-driven analysis and commentary New …

We encountered a mini-doc on the Permian boom this week that is worth a watch if you haven’t seen it yet. Note the prayer before the left turn into 285 traffic at 5:30am… There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you …

The great local sand rush of 2017-2018 has clearly slowed down here as sand prices have dropped into a trough (we estimate Permian FOB mine prices are down some 65% y/y). What’s going on with operations though? Is more sand still to come? We take a look in this data-driven …

In this update, we chart an important activity metric that probably peaked in the Permian in-basin sand industry during 1Q19. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) …

Whelp… this chart doesn’t bode well for oilfield service markets in 4Q19… Are we on track for a repeat of last year’s budget exhaustion woes? There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial …

Today we look at Precision Drilling’s recent earnings call and annual shareholders’ meeting commentary for highlights from their outlook on the Canadian drilling market. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has …

In this asset-intensive business, talent shifts are often ignored. But we believe people matter. We also believe that recruiting datapoints often carry implications for oilfield trends, value creation, and competitive dynamics. Here are two notable moves that caught our attention recently… There’s a lot more to this story… To read …

As the vote on the vacant Texas Trustee seat draws closer (May 22), we continue to publish this “scorecard” documenting the punches thrown by each side. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free …

We provide updated thoughts on the market conditions for frac sand in Texas. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) Members get Exclusive research update newsletters High-caliber, data-driven analysis …

This June 21st in Downtown Houston, US oil industry leaders will gather to discuss oilfield water’s evolving business model, market structure, and finance trends. Oilfield Water: Identifying & Financing The Right Solution is the first-ever conference devoted entirely to the business side of oilfield water. This segment now poses structural …

Here’s a look at what they said then and now, showing how their thinking has become more transparent. Other operators will definitely take notice if Pioneer’s water tone starts to shift on divestiture, since the company has long been at the forefront of water management in the tight oil E&P …

What’s really going on with Schlumberger’s trucking unit? We discuss the story behind the story here… There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) Members get Exclusive research …

Market intel on the local frac sand supply stack. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) Members get Exclusive research update newsletters High-caliber, data-driven analysis and commentary New angles …

Big changes at the biggest sand company in the US. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) Members get Exclusive research update newsletters High-caliber, data-driven analysis and commentary New …

As our newsletter this past Tuesday predicted, Chevron walked…. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) Members get Exclusive research update newsletters High-caliber, data-driven analysis and commentary New angles …

Market intel on the Brady frac sand supply stack. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) Members get Exclusive research update newsletters High-caliber, data-driven analysis and commentary New angles …

Just days after a customer popped the cork on news that a big frac outfit may be rolling out an electric frac fleet, another pressure pumper has jumped on the e-frac bandwagon. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must …

Breaking news involving the acquisition of an innovative last mile boutique and a software platform that we’ve been covering for quite some time here at Infill Thinking… There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your …

  There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) Members get Exclusive research update newsletters High-caliber, data-driven analysis and commentary New angles on stories you’ll only find here No advertisements, …

In the pithy bullet points below, here’s what all frac supply chain folks should know from Solaris’s remarks on their earnings call last week. Their words. Their views. Not ours. But just the stuff we think matters for the broader completions marketplace. There’s a lot more to this story… To …

The proxy contest for the vacant Trustee seat on Texas Pacific’s board has only heated up since we first wrote about it here several weeks ago. Over the past week, jabs have been flying left and right, fast and furious. So rather than writing up each swing, we figured a …

Here’s the latest on a plant worker strike that is impacting NWS supply. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) Members get Exclusive research update newsletters High-caliber, data-driven analysis …

The customer of a large frac outfit wasn’t the only one talking excitedly about electric fracs last week. Here’s what the builders said… There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, …

On their earnings call on May 2, 2019, an E&P management team dropped this little lightning bolt of news: There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) Members …

The day after PDC Energy sold their water infrastructure assets to WaterBridge – crossing a deal  off our watchlist – another transaction closed that fits with a deal theme we are monitoring – a theme likely to continue with more small M&A deals like this one in the days ahead… …

In the pithy bullet points below, here’s what all frac supply chain folks should know from US Silica’s remarks on their earnings call this week. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial …

Earnings season can be pretty dry. As we approach peak 1Q19 reporting season in the oilfield, a stack of earnings releases, transcripts, and recaps are piling up on desks from New York to Midland (ours included, somewhere in between). So we’ll take the humor and lighter moments where we can …

About one month ago, we tipped readers off about five potential upcoming deals in the oilfield water M&A pipeline. Today, one of the deals on our watch-list came to fruition. We knew the seller before… now we know the buyer. And it is one of the most aggressive consolidators in …

This is the fifth installment in our Silica Valley Series which shines the spotlight on an increasingly critical part of the frac value chain: new software solutions in the last mile. A crop of new entrants are improving the frac sand industry’s “mind-muscle connection” on the highways from origin to …

In our weekly rig count update this week, a highlights from the latest round of remarks made by the leading land rig contractors. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, …

The battle for control of a critical swath of Permian land and water assets continues to heat up as the incumbents retaliate against recent activist investor information releases… There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If …

If there’s one thing we can say with certainty about the 2019 US shale business it’s that oilfield water management is trending. You’ve probably noticed an uptick in water research here at Infill Thinking (example 1, 2, and 3). And we aren’t alone… check out newly launched oilfieldwater.com. So when …

Price is a powerful lever. And falling sand prices have extended payback periods for new greenfield frac sand plants. What does this mean for interest in building new plants? In this post, we take a data-driven look at the current status of a once-in-a-lifetime silica mining rush. There’s a lot …

An activist investor continues to trade punches with a big Delaware Basin land bank. The proxy battle has big oilfield water and land management implications. Here is analysis on the latest developments in this proxy battle over a vacant trustee seat as the vote looms large… There’s a lot more …

Ultra-fine proppant has been in and out of the news for the past several years without a real inflection in traction in completion design. Will that fact pattern change in the future? We discuss the microproppant outlook and a new datapoint in the story here. There’s a lot more to …

We take a look at some notable comings and goings. The frac talent pool continues to play musical chairs. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) Members …

What can Eagle Ford frac sand customers and suppliers expect for the rest of 2019 on the local sand greenfield front? We’ve rounded up data on the next round of plant startups. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must …

When Chevron bid for Anadarko two weeks ago, the first line of Infill Thinking’s newsletter that day underscored the importance of Oxy’s failed bid. “The most interesting headline coming out of today’s Mega-Scale M&A news might actually be Oxy’s failed bid for Anadarko.” – Infill Thinking Headline From 4/12/19 Come …

On Monday, Halliburton was the second oilfield service company to host a conference call so far during the early days of 1Q19 earnings season. Here’s what you need to know from the call if you work in the US completions supply chain. There’s a lot more to this story… To …

Today’s news was widely expected. It’s what comes next that’s less clear. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) Members get Exclusive research update newsletters High-caliber, data-driven analysis and …

With a shareholder meeting to pick the next TPL Trustee one month away, the activist investor’s pick for the vacant seat has launched a video campaign in which he questions the Trust’s land and water strategy. The vote for this seat has big implications for the Permian land and water …

In this update we shine a flashlight beam on one of the Permian Basin’s ugliest metrics relative to the rest of US shale. There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, …

In a five-minute read, here’s what completions supply chain pros need to know about Schlumberger’s market commentary Thursday morning… There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) Members …

Here’s what completions supply chain folks need to know about Union Pacific’s market commentary Thursday morning… There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If your free trial has expired, renew here. (Current members login here.) Members get Exclusive research …

It’s only Tuesday, but two major frac sand industry gatherings have already happened in Texas this week. Much of the buzz we picked up from these events (one of which our team attended) seemed to be in line with recent Infill Thinking reporting and presentations at other recent frac sand …

Status quo in frac sand? Yep. For the first time in two years, disruption is in the review mirror not smack dab ahead of us. See how and what’s next in this thematic piece… There’s a lot more to this story… To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …