Last week, the US land rig count breached 900 (stands at 902). We are now at the level Halliburton famously pronounced “the new equilibrium” one year ago. We address what this means for completions, frac horsepower, and US oil production in this update. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the …
Read More »Frac Sand Is A Substitute For Wells And Rigs. Lower 48 Surface Sprawl Is Going Underground [Charts]
Is frac sand replacing rigs? It would appear so in the US onshore recovery. As unconventional drilling and completion science evolves, the industry’s surface footprint per barrel of oil produced is shrinking. A growing sub-surface footprint (which we can measure with sand) is replacing the surface sprawl. With the US onshore …
Read More »The US Land Drillers Face A Prisoner’s Dilemma As Market Leaders Automate
Although the drilling rig itself is only about 10% of total onshore well costs these days, it has become the epicenter of the industry’s latest technology craze: automation, digitization, and big data. As market leaders embark on a new technology cycle, drilling days/well are poised to keep trending down. One day …
Read More »If April Showers Bring May Flowers, What Do Permits In March Bring?
About a month ago, we noticed a material spike in permitting activity for horizontal wells in the Permian Basin. Based on historical data, the March spike suggested that the Permian horizontal rig count could increase further 25%. We look at what’s happened since then, and update our permitting analysis for April data in this …
Read More »What’s Going On In Culberson County?
Last week after scouring air permit data, we identified a new sand mine site in Culberson County Texas In conversations with readers offline, the potential mine’s location has come up several times as a sticking point. Could this sand be stranded if indeed it is pointed at the frac industry? (questions …
Read More »Oilfield Technologification Starts With A Spud. How & Why Land Drillers Have Gone All Apple On Us
Most industry observers now accept that the oilfield is on a path towards digitization, big data, machine learning, more integration, and automation. Instinctually, most of these same observers would probably not pick land contract drilling as a segment to lead the charge. But it has become increasingly clear to us that …
Read More »Sharing Our Cheat Sheet For 1Q17 Reporting Season: Key Themes For 8 Oilfield Sectors
Earnings season begins Friday morning. Here’s our cheat sheet of just the most important themes and trends to listen for as management teams discuss the outlook. We’ve broken down the cheat sheet by US onshore E&P, majors, completion service providers, frac sand miners, onshore drilling, offshore drilling, and diversified oilfield services, …
Read More »Rig Count Charts For Three Recent Infill Thinking Observations: Haynesville, Delaware, & Sand Gap
This update started with three qualitative observations we wrote about over the past several days. These sent us back into the spreadsheets for today’s piece. We sliced and diced drilling data to expound on Haynesville green shoots, a Delaware Basin push, and frac sand valuation commentaries. There’s a lot more …
Read More »The Last Time Permian Operators Got Permits Like This, They Had 25% More Rigs On The Payroll
Drilling permit data from March showed increased operator appetite for drilling and more room to run for the rig count. We share a chart capturing the trend and break down the permit data into actionable analysis on hot spots and top operators. There’s a lot more to this story… Login …
Read More »Nabors Industries Is Unstacking High Spec Land Rigs Faster Than Expected
Nabors released an operational update Monday morning, disclosing how the rapid US rig count growth trajectory during the first quarter is impacting their business. Like Halliburton, Nabors is incurring unexpected costs associated with the outsized growth relative to prior expectations. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see …
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