Tag: technology

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Surviving the Promises of Technology

Surviving Technology

Over the years, technology has played a heralded role in the oil and gas industry. It still does today. Pick up any trade publication and chances are you’ll find at least one well-worn tribute to its importance.

Yet, the fixation on hi-tech hasn’t been without problems. It’s even been value-destroying at times. We’d argue the industry’s intractable struggle with financial returns is due, in part, to spending on technology that isn’t justified. Continue reading “Surviving the Promises of Technology”

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Oilfield Equipment: Let Gaps Guide Investment

Top Drive

In the 1980s and 1990s, the oilfield equipment sector, for all intents and purposes, neglected the customer.  Since then, a select group of companies have successfully kept the focus of their efforts on satisfying  customers with dependable products.  They have coupled this with responsive service.

The results are impressive. In fact, they’ve played critical roles in advancing the industry’s capabilities.  Horizontal wells are now drilled as adroitly as vertical wells.  Offshore operations are carried out at previously unimaginable water depths.  High temperatures and pressures are routinely brought to heel.  Better bit designs save Continue reading “Oilfield Equipment: Let Gaps Guide Investment”

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A Matter Of Expectations

Customer Expectations

A lot of life is about expectations — when they are not met, we tend to react negatively. Business is the same way. While it might feel good to make lofty claims concerning the reliability, value or benefit of our products or services, if doing so leads to unrealistically high customer expectations, we’re doing ourselves and our customers a disfavor.

One of the questions EnergyPoint gets most often concerning its survey results is why certain oilfield suppliers perceived as having strong technology fare so modestly, or even poorly, in our annual customer satisfaction rankings of oilfield suppliers. The answer has to do with who’s setting the customers’ expectations around the technology — the company or the market place? Continue reading “A Matter Of Expectations”

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Off Target In The Aftermarket

Off Target

Listening to earnings calls of today’s publicly traded oilfield suppliers, it’s easy to come away with the impression that within certain original equipment manufacturers’ post-sale support function has little to do with ensuring customers get the most and best use of the products they purchase. Rather, the function seems more about collecting outsize incremental revenues designed to juice margins.

A number of suppliers openly boast to their investors (but we suspect not to customers) that the increasingly high-tech features embedded in many of today’s oilfield products are good for business expressly because of the future maintenance income attached to the products. Continue reading “Off Target In The Aftermarket”

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Why Concerns Over Guar Are Overblown

Guar Beans

The shortage of guar gum and its potential impact on the ability of oilfield suppliers to meet hydraulic fracturing demand has been a hot topic as of late. While we acknowledge the issue is intriguing (i.e., an unforeseen shortage of a strange plant product no one had really even heard of a year ago, hoarding of inventories by the globe’s number one producer, etc.), it’s our opinion that concerns are overblown for the following reasons: Continue reading “Why Concerns Over Guar Are Overblown”

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Are Today’s Drill Bits Better Mousetraps?

Chart showing drill bit scores by supplier

When oilfield suppliers make outsized claims regarding a new technology or design, we, like many in the industry, can be skeptical.
 
Looking good on paper doesn’t always produce repeatable results for customers. Over-promoted offerings spawn the kinds of high expectations that lead to low customer ratings.

Continue reading “Are Today’s Drill Bits Better Mousetraps?”