Energy Industry Intel & Commentary
The New York Times recently published an Op-Ed on the American shale industry that garnered significant attention within the oil and gas community. The piece was written by Bethany McLean, co-author of The Smartest Guys in the Room—the book-turned-documentary many consider to be the definitive account of Enron and its unraveling.
Continue reading “Can American Shale Keep It Up?”
Recently, residents of Denton, Texas voted to ban hydraulic fracturing within the city limits. One way to read the results from the referendum is to conclude that the verdict is in: unconventional drilling for oil and gas poses enough health risks to nearby communities that it had to be stopped in the Dallas-suburb home to drilling innovation.
But is fracking really to blame for recently high incidents of asthma, nose bleed and nausea reported by Denton residents? As a pioneering city for hydraulic fracturing, the practice has been in place for decades in and around Denton. What’s novel to the city is the anti-fracking activism and its coverage in both the local and national media. Continue reading “Hydraulic Fracturing & The Nocebo Effect”
Until recently, if one were to side-click their way to the website of onshore drilling contractor Helmerich & Payne (H&P), they could be forgiven for assuming the company was just another run-of-the-mill driller. Framed mostly in nondescript grey and blue, the site seemed an unfinished afterthought of a organization with better things to do.
In truth, that’s probably not too far off. H&P has traditionally avoided heavily marketing itself, leaving the trumpeting of its success to customers and industry analysts. Nonetheless, when you’ve earned the kind of respect the Tulsa-based company has over the years, taking pride in the presentation of your story is only Continue reading “The Reluctant Rockstar”
U.S. shale plays may be creating a novel way to measure the new breed of top oil companies. The standard yardstick of worldwide barrels produced per day still evokes names of familiar global players such as Exxon Mobil, Shell and BP, as well as state-owned entities like Saudi Aramco and Petrobras. When gauged by innovation on the frontier of enhanced oil recovery, however, a host of more narrowly focused companies enter the conversation.
The sheer volume of extractable petroleum, and the related economic potential, justifiably dominate shale discussions. The Bakken Shale helped reinvigorate domestic oil drilling, and the Eagle Ford Shale promises to make Texas the eighth largest producer of crude in the world by the end of this year. EOG Resources, a gas company turned top shale-oil producer, has plans to drill 425 wells this year in Eagle Ford. These shales are incubators where today’s new type of top oil company is changing the way we extract hydrocarbons. Continue reading “Top Oil Companies Increasingly Defined by Shale Innovation”
Shale-oil and -gas production in the U.S. has been revered by some as the fuel, engine and vehicle driving the nation toward energy independence and economic solvency. Astronomical estimates of reserves, millions of high-paying new oilfield jobs, enhanced competitiveness for American industry, greater tax inflows for state and federal governments, and incremental export revenues certainly justify the volume of discussion.
Shale has at once become both disruptive and transformative. It’s also here to stay. IEA estimates the share of U.S. shale oil and gas production to double by 2035. Continue reading “Global Shale: Potential Bonanza for Suppliers”
As customers in the hotly contested midstream services segment have demanded more reliable operations and deeper product-development capabilities from their suppliers, MarkWest Energy once again has emerged as best-in-class as it captured top honors in EnergyPoint Research’s 2013 Midstream Services Customer Satisfaction Survey.
The recently announced results cinches back-to-back customer satisfaction victories for MarkWest, which also took first-place overall in EnergyPoint’s midstream survey conducted in 2011. The biennial study, which dates back to 2006, is the leading independently conducted benchmark customer satisfaction study focusing on U.S. midstream service providers.
Continue reading “MarkWest, Williams & Sunoco Logistics Garner Midstream Kudos”
Halliburton has seen a leveling off of its customer satisfaction marks recently, bringing to a halt the downward drift it experienced last year. Its plight going forward seems to increasingly hinge on the company’s Frac of the Future initiative.
Below are some observations on what we’ve read and heard from company management and its customers as of late, as well as input from others in the oilfield: Continue reading “The Grapevine: Halliburton”
Late last week, Gardner Denver acknowledged it has engaged investment bankers at Goldman Sachs to help evaluate potential strategic alternatives, including sale of the company.
The company’s stock price jumped with the news. However, there’s reason to believe an eventual sale of Gardner Denver could be done at a price materially above current stock-price levels, especially since its shares seem to have been trading at a discount prior to the run-up. Continue reading “Gardner Denver’s Dance Card to Fill Up Fast”
With the impending purchase of Canada’s Pure Energy Services, Houston-based FMC Technologies adds frac flowback treatment and cleanup services to its portfolio of offerings. In doing so, the company enters the service-side of the fracking game more as waterboy than as athlete, more satisfied to clean up after the segment’s higher-profile stars than to challenge them at their own game. But why? Continue reading “FMC Technologies Makes a Play in Shale”
One would think E&P companies would be cheering. Nominal hydraulic fracturing capacity looks on pace to rise 25 percent or more this year. And advances in technology promise to bolster both the potency and cleanliness of the increasingly relied-upon service.
Yet, against the backdrop of capacity growth and technological advances, suppliers of frac services are earning relatively low marks in EnergyPoint customer satisfaction surveys. In fact, as demand for frac services increases, the less content customers seem—especially compared to other completion-related services. This is certainly the case for perennial segment leader Halliburton (although the company’s ratings still continue to lead those of its major peers). It appears the case for Schlumberger and Baker Hughes as well. Continue reading “Opportunities Stack Up, As Fracs Back Up”
