The Energy Consulting Group

Management consultants for upstream oil and gas producers and service companies

Through our management consulting engagements with important suppliers to the fracking industry, we have amassed a huge volume of data and analysis on fracking (HHP) demand, utilization rates, equipment retirement rates, fracking best practices, evolution of frack designs, the economics of fracking, the production response to fracking, play level demand for fracking services, and how many crews it takes to support this demand.

As an example of the granularity of data to which we have access, please go to this web page, which presents in detail the frack history of a horizontal well with 7500' lateral fracked by 50 stages. The data is from a database with thousands of such wells. 

We use this unique combination of "big picture" and well level data/information to characterize demand for fracking services, develop strategic insight for the North American E&P service sector, and to estimate the amount of new oil and gas production that will come from these activities. We have been doing this since the start of the horizontal fracking revolution almost 15 years ago. We believe this longevity combined with the depth and breadth of data that we have collected and continue to collect gives us a unparalleled degree of insight into this important facet of the E&P business.

This page is the start of our sharing of this insight derived from this data. Below is just a small sampling of the data we have pulled together.

If you are interested in discussing our work, please contact us at insight@energy-cg.com, and we will arrange either a conference call or Skype session.

Exhibit 1:  Map of Selected USA and Canadian Fracking Plays Click Image for Full Size

Using our proprietary databases, and market analysis tools, we have determined there is approximately 18.2 million of hhp supporting fracking opeations in the US fracking market.  To be clear, not all this horserpower is onsite and pumping.  At any one moment, a portion of the equipment of a fleet is either on maintenance rotation, or is on standbye status ready to be swapped in for in-service equipment if problems arise during jobs. Our analysis indicates that this 18.2 mmhhp is spread across approximately 482 frac crews working in over 30 areas and plays. Our analytics also provide insight on the number of working drilling rigs, coiled tubing units and workover units, etc.  Further, we often extend this analysis to determine how the amount of working hhp will change with changes in oil and natural gas prices.

We track measures of frack efficiency, such as stages per day, or treated feet per day

Improving Efficiency: Frack Stages per Day As Reported by Several Diffierent Operators Click Image for Full Size

Improving Efficiency: Frack Stages Per Day As Reported by One Operator For Two Plays Click Image for Full Size

And, we tract measures of operational performance that affect demand for fracking services and influence frack intensity.

Some operational parameters that determine the amount of hhp demand.

Our in-house measure of frack intensity has slowed significantly.

Incremantal Economics of a Theoritical Example of An Improved Well Treatment Design	We also track the effectiveness of changes in frack designs, as a result we can assess the value of the changes using EVAL, our in-house economic analysis program.  The theoritical example to the left illustrates this capability.
Fracking A Well