Sooner or later, oil comes to the surface. It’s true in the world of nature. Any spillage of oil or gasoline on a lake or pond will float above the water. It’s true in the world of subsurface geology. Crude oil wants to rise to the surface of the earth. That’s why “traps” and anticlines […]

From 2017-2019, UTPB’s Water in Energy Conference was markedly more successful than its founders had imagined. Designed to connect “industry leaders and researchers, sharing in best practices and cutting-edge approaches to some of the oil and gas industry’s most pressing water issues,” the conference in each of the first three years saw tremendous growth in […]

In Memphis, Elvis is The King. In the Permian Basin, Oil is The King. Oil’s had a long string of hits in West Texas, dating back more than 100 years. Its backup singers, natural gas and natural gas liquids, have their place, but they’ll never be the star of the show. In fact, NGLs are […]

On April 20, 2020, the benchmark price of oil—WTI—fell to an unprecedented level of -$37.61 for May 2020 futures contracts. While this event was not on the level of the invasion of Normandy or the release of the next iPhone version, its shock waves ripped through oil and gas boardrooms around the world—mostly because it […]

The iconic pump jack, emblazoned on hats, jackets, signs, and the hearts of oil and gas people everywhere, is alive and well. No one thinks it’s going anywhere any time soon, because it does still have much work to do. But underneath the surface, some cracks are appearing in its once ubiquitous and seamless armor. […]

The key words in today’s economic world would seem to include “disruption, adaptation, and creativity.” Nowhere are these words more pertinent than in the oilfield services sector. There, additional key phrases would be “burning iron” and “squeezing profits.” The three companies contacted for this article exemplify another word—“diversity”—as each has taken a different path to […]