Evolving economics drive the life cycle of an oil and gas play. By Paul Wiseman In the wild west days of the oil patch’s infancy, gritty men in jeans and overalls prowled the prairies armed with dreams, a bit of geology, and some kind of luck. The opportunities were as varied and wide as those […]
The Nitty Gritty of Sand
It’s famine to feast. With the return to activity, sandmen are no longer asleep at the wheel. Frac sand companies are hiring people, buying equipment, and gaining market share. Meanwhile, sand itself—as used by E&P companies—has changed. By Paul Wiseman Most of 2016 was a crisis in much of the oil industry, and the […]
Sand’s Hidden Danger
Heightened regulations are in the pipeline to reduce silicosis deaths By Paul Wiseman Of the major inhaled pollutant issues, frac sand is not on the list for most people. After all, it spends most of its existence in the ground—in the mine or in the oil well. Seems harmless enough. But on its way […]
Big in the Basin
Big is back, and the business done by the Bigs is brisk in the Permian Basin. We tap the minds of three top industry observers to explore why bigness makes bank in the region’s convention-defying recovery. By Jesse Mullins It’s been a much-cited statistic. Land deals in the Permian Basin these days have gone […]
Small in the Permian
The way business is done in the Basin is changing fast, and many are saying that it’s a game for ever-bigger entities, but these three operators say that smaller can still be better—and they explain how and why that works for them. by Hanaba Munn Welch All it takes is a lease. The Permian […]
To Give It Another Go
Refracturing gives producers another crack at declining wells. Improved frac procedures and the opportunity for strong cost-benefit balances are behind the renewed interest in refracturing. By Paul Wiseman Much like the rise in horizontal drilling that started a few years ago, industry veterans realize that refracturing is not so much new as it is […]
Where the Action Is
Like a canary in a mine, an oilfield auction can be a bellwether of oil economy health. Frac equipment led auction sales for two years, as hardware that was being unloaded on the marketplace. And yet now it’s a hot buy. By Paul Wiseman When gauging the health of the oil field economy, there’s […]
The Next Generation
MISD’s Petroleum Academy visits a Diamondback rig north of Midland. The Permian Basin Petroleum Association and the E&P firm Diamondback among those contributing to training the next generation of oilfield hands. by Paul Wiseman The phrase “field trip” may conjure up images of the zoo or the farm. But for enrollees in the […]
Chemistry Matters
Competition does, too. Performance Chemical, known for its unorthodox hiring philosophy, lured a gridiron star from his chosen sport and added him to a new sort of team. by Paul Wiseman The University of Lousiana-Lafayette (formerly Southwest Louisiana) has seen several alumni find success in the NFL over the years—notably Jake Delhomme, who […]
Standing Tall: PBIOS 2016 in Pictures
Those words were the theme of the 2016 Permian Basin International Oil Show, and they summed up the mood nicely. by Jesse Mullins ODESSA, TEXAS—For two solid days we cooked here under record high temps, frying under an impossibly malevolent October sun, and for the third day we came nigh to blowing away from […]
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