Infill Thinking Lifting the O&G knowledge curve

Yesterday’s wildfire news caused us to revisit publicly available mine permit records for the Mid-Con. We have uncovered an additional large-scale sand mining plan in Oklahoma as the Mid-Con proppant market appears to be quickly moving in the direction of the Permian – becoming locally supplied. There’s a lot more …

A Monahans train wreck overnight on Wednesday could impact Permian completions. 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, …

Thoughts on the developing wildfire situation in the Mid-Con as it pertains to upstream activity. This is a fluid situation, and we’ll be adding updates to this post as events unfold.   There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and …

Everyone’s been focused on trucking in Texas. And trucking in Texas is tight. But it’s the devil you don’t know that’ll get you.  And during the first half of 2018, unanticipated disruptions in transportation modes not involving wheels have wreaked much more havoc in the shale frac sand transportation network. …

Following this recent update on more local proppant capacity in the Haynesville shale, we received some inbound reader questions about the status of the Haynesville shale market. Incoming intel requests spanned both the frac sand market and general drilling and completion activity in the region. So we made some calls …

This month in South Texas, we spent the better part of a week meeting with industry contacts, touring facilities, and combing the field for interesting angles. In this update, we’ve distilled our yellow pad full of random notes into the following digestible bullet points. Please stay tuned for several more …

Following this recent update on more local proppant capacity in the Haynesville shale, we received some inbound reader questions about the status of this regional market. Incoming intel requests spanned both the frac sand market and general drilling and completion activity in the region. So we made some calls and …

Policy whiplash continues in OCTG, but it appears to be about done now. With quotas and tariffs now seemingly set, the OCTG market can finally begin plotting its own course this year. We add up the pros and cons from recent policy changes from both buyer and seller perspectives.   …

In the Silica Valley Series introduction, we noted that commercialization models vary pretty widely in the digital last mile space. Sand Tiger, the second software in our series, is quite a bit different from most in that it was built and developed by a trucking operations company with no intention to monetize …

This week, we worked our channels to check on the latest pricing for in-basin frac sand. Our last price check was during our February trip to the Permian, and earnings season is now just a couple weeks out. So it seems like a good time for a pricing update. Log …

We learned that the leading Haynesville frac sand new entrant’s ambitions have grown since our last conversation with the company in 4Q18. 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 …

Last week in the Eagle Ford, we drove by an industrial sand mining operation 30 minutes south of San Antonio. We did an abrupt u-turn when we saw a certain type of truck picking up there… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To …

In basin sand for the Mid-Con seems to be coming up more frequently in our conversations with industry contacts. Here’s three recent examples followed by analysis of SCOOP/STACK drilling rig activity trends. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and …

There’s a new thread over in our members-only discussion forum. In it, Infill Thinkers are discussing the implications of takeaway constraints in the Permian and the recent widening of the Midland crude price differential. Read more and add your response here >> There’s a lot more to this story… Login …

Liberty Oilfield Services may be the new kid on the pressure pumping block in the Eagle Ford, but they aren’t wasting time making a name for themselves here. Last week, we put boots on the ground in the Eagle Ford, gathering firsthand market intelligence on the local moves Liberty is …

The rapid advent of frac sand mining in Texas is not only drawing governmental attention from the Texas Comptroller’s office because of environmental impacts. Now the Texas legislature is taking a look too. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update …

The following report was filed in our email newsletter on April 6, 2018. We were just wrapping up a productive week in the Eagle Ford. In fact, just before sitting down to write this report, we climbed 15 stories up onto the silo roofs of one of the major area …

There are new details on the first big Mid-Con frac sand mine… and it could be here sooner than you might think. 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 …

A few local headlines in West Texas caught our attention this week. Oilfield traffic is becoming a bigger problem as the year goes 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 …

During a busy 1Q18, Infill Thinking published 102 research updates, shipped 27 subscriber newsletters, and hosted 3 reader meet-ups. Infill Thinking’s membership grew by 25% during the quarter. Here is a list of our top stories and also the top debates of 1Q18.   There’s a lot more to this …

Last week, the US unconventional oil rig count did something it hasn’t done since the downturn. 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, …

After publishing a “petition may be coming” piece last week, we talked to several more market participants who confirmed they expect action soon. Meanwhile, there have been a couple interesting developments that set the table for the legal battle whenever it begins. There’s a lot more to this story… Login …

This is the first 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 …

When the term “new entrants” is mentioned in frac sand conversation, the focus immediately gravitates to the physical. New sand producers, new plants, new well-site storage containers, and new trailer fleets have been all the rage lately. Hardware gets the headlines, but new software solutions have swept in too. A …

The offshore drilling market is starting a comeback after the worst downturn in a generation (if not the worst ever). While dayrates are still barely keeping the contractors afloat, tender activity and utilization appear to be headed out of a trough. Bright spots in a few areas appear to be …

Antero made some interesting comments at an investor conference this week. We break down what you need to know about their frac supply chain here. 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 …

There’s a new thread over in our members-only discussion forum. In it we question whether the big Permian M&A deal this week marks the start of a push for scale. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …