Ironically, all the recent talk of restraint by tight oil operators is a contributing factor to the recent crude oil price rally. In turn, rising oil prices will put to the test this newfound US operator resolve to reign in the willy nilly spending of prior upcycles. With WTI an …
Read More »Don’t Read Too Much Into The Permian Rig Count Trajectory Lag. It Is Not A Sign Of Animal Spirit Inflection
We have seen some recent market commentary interpreting a lackluster Permian rig count response to the 4Q17 oil price rally as evidence of a change in E&P behavior or appetite for Permian development. We do not believe this interpretation is accurate. In this update, see what we believe are the real …
Read More »A Look Back At 2017 US Onshore Drilling Growth By Basin [Heatmap]
As the year draws to a close, here’s a look around the nation at the hottest onshore drilling basins and how they stack up this year on activity growth. Also included is a discussion of how the actual overall trend in US drilling compares to expectations a year ago and …
Read More »Ghosts Of Frac Sand Past, Present, And Future [Rigs vs. Mines Maps]
Since April, the geo-transformation of the frac sand business has accelerated. In the following charts, we’ve taken our previously published rigs vs. mines cartographical analysis a step further. In the slideshow below, we’ve included a map of historical frac sand supply sources, the new map with three West Texas in-basin …
Read More »Land Drilling Rig Capex Is Sinking To New Multi-Decade Lows
As E&P spending continues to recover, land driller spending looks poised to embark on a fourth straight year of decline. Precision Drilling released their 2018 capex program on Monday. We analyze the numbers in this update… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update… To …
Read More »The Results Of Infill Thinking’s 2018 Outlook Survey Are In…
Last week, we asked readers to answer 13 questions about the outlook for 2018. The focus of our survey was key trends and themes in the US onshore business. Participation was strong, with a diverse mix of respondents – all of whom are well informed on Lower 48 trends. In …
Read More »This Chart Shows How The Oilfield Service Value Chain Has Been Turned Upside Down
In our weekly rig count update this week, we take a look at how frac sand volume per rig has trended the past few years. Plotting the sand/rig ratio reveals a rapid sea change in the Lower 48 oilfield service value chain. There’s a lot more to this story… …
Read More »H&P Has Plenty Of 2018 Capex Budgeted To Upgrade Their 100+ Super-Spec Rig Candidates
Helmerich & Payne closed out C3Q17 earnings season for the land drillers late-last week. Here are the three statements that we found most interesting… 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 …
Read More »In The Nation’s Two Biggest Liquids Plays, It’s A Tale Of Two Cities
In this weekly rig count update, we take a quick look at the rig count evolution of today’s two most important US onshore markets: West Texas and Oklahoma. You may remember the following chart from an update early this year when we wrote about the bifurcated Permian market place…. …
Read More »It’s Time To Spin The Globe Looking For Signs Of Life As Brent Flirts With $65/Barrel
The recovery in oilfield service (OFS) activity and pricing outside the US has been waiting in the wings for three years. Outside the US, there have only been a few international bright spots – non-US oilfield growth has been non-existent. Most countries’ oilfield service markets have been dragging bottom all …
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