‘Frack now, pay later,’ top services companies say amid oil crash

Reuters ^ | 07 August 2015 | Terry Wade and Anna Driver

[Lorianne]

Business is so tough for oilfield giants Schlumberger NV and Halliburton Co that they have come up with a new sales pitch for crude producers halting work in the worst downturn in years. It amounts to this: "frack now and pay later."

The moves by the world's No. 1 and No. 2 oil services companies show how they are scrambling to book sales of new technologies to customers short of cash after a 60 percent slide in crude to $45 a barrel.

In some cases, they are willing to take on the role of traditional lenders, like banks, which have grown reluctant to lend since the price drop that began last summer, or act like producers by taking what are essentially stakes in wells

[Zhang Fei]

Interesting phenom, given that many oil service companies don’t exactly have pristine balance sheets.

[ClearCase_guy]

I’d be pretty surprised if this is a viable business strategy — but what do I know?

[Undecided 2012]

For the life of me I don’t get why NE libs don’t create incentives to drill/frack natural gas from Marcellus, lay piping and convert the NE from exported oil to domestic gas. Duh

[CedarDave]

It’s pretty obvious they want to continue with a minimum of business. Otherwise, they lay off trained technical specialists who might be difficult to hire back. Of course, if the slump in prices is prolonged, they will have to let them go too.

[taildragger]

Nevermind Marcellus how about the Hartford Basin right in their own back yard? I hear it is too thin and immature, but those can be overcome in theory ( Harold Vinegar in Israel, google it..)