Surveying the Oil-Field Services Landscape
The tale of two cycles looks set to continue for another year. Drilling activity may have bottomed in the international markets, but pricing pressure will persist until price deflation improves break-evens and upstream operators have more confidence in the outlook for oil prices. Meanwhile, some US exploration and production companies may moderate their spending increases relative to last year, but this short-cycle market remains the best bet for incremental growth and pricing gains in 2018–especially if our call for oil prices to average between $55 and $60 per barrel pans out. Given our preference for US exposure at this point in the cycle, we review the challenges, opportunities and market dynamics in three prominent onshore service lines through the lens of companies’ third-quarter results: contract drilling, pressure pumping and proppant.
Picking through a Bumper Crop of Oil-Field Service IPOs
The recent bumper crop of oil-field service IPOs includes a number of commoditized businesses seeking to strike while the iron is hot and a few niche plays that could be worth a look.
Focus On The Permania
The latest additions to the Energy & Income Advisor Focus List have lagged of late, primarily because of the selloff in West Texas Intermediate crude oil. In light of these recent market moves, we we revisit our outlook and investment strategy.
Water Technologies and Sustainable Fracking
The energy industry’s growing consumption of fresh water for hydraulic fracturing and approaches to disposing the resulting wastewater have created significant challenges. We highlight some of the solutions.
Schlumberger and Halliburton Call the Bottom: Now What?
Schlumberger and Halliburton’s management teams called a bottom in the North American oil-field services market, but the timing, pace and magnitude of the recovery may disappoint investors.
Oddball V-MLPs
Publicly traded partnerships that pay a variable distribution are a niche part of the MLP space that’s home to several oddball MLPs that have few mainstream analogues.
Swimming Upstream
Despite the underperformance of master limited partnerships (MLP) that produce oil and gas this year, New Source Energy Partners LP still went public. Here’s out take on this upstream operator and Emerge Energy Services LP, a newly listed MLP that pays a variable distribution and produces specialized silica sand for use in hydraulic fracturing.
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Live Chat with
Elliott and Roger on Apr. 26, 2018
Portfolios & Ratings
Model Portfolios
Balanced portfolios of energy stocks for aggressive and conservative investors.
Coverage Universe
Our take on more than 50 energy-related equities, from upstream to downstream and everything in between.
MLP Ratings
Our assessment of every energy-related master limited partnership.
International Coverage Universe
Roger Conrad’s coverage of more than 70 dividend-paying energy names.
Experts
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Roger S. Conrad
Founder and Chief Analyst: Capitalist Times and Energy & Income Advisor
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Elliott H. Gue
Founder and Chief Analyst: Capitalist Times and Energy & Income Advisor
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Peter Staas
Managing Editor: Capitalist Times and Energy & Income Advisor