Not necessarily true. Payout ratio, future growth expectations, etc. ROFL.

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The bond and 2nd lien market dried up. Not much capital our there unless you're PE.

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All true.

Schlumberger laying off 9000. This could be ominous news for the industry. They're a more global player than any other service company. I'm surprised at such a scorched earth layoff this early in the downturn.

That just means they're playing hardball and want to send a strong message to the market. Full disclosure: former blue employee.

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Apache laid off 30 engineers in Midland and 40 in Tulsa today. Painful to watch, and likely only the beginning of what we'll see in the industry.

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Was a certain person by the initials of TT one of them by any chance?

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Schlumberger laying off 9000. This could be ominous news for the industry. They're a more global player than any other service company. I'm surprised at such a scorched earth layoff this early in the downturn.

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How many of these were field hands they are paying hotel nights for, daily meal stipend, etc? Have to reduce SG&A somehow.

EngrOG,

Are you in Midland? If so, I think we may work for the same company.

Anyone know if the layoffs are concentrated in the field, Houston corporate, or otherwise? I have not seen any information on that yet.

I'm guessing the initial wave will be concentrated in the field. Corp jobs in Houston, OKC, etc will follow.

Friends husband works for SLB here in Houston, and he let 2 people go earlier this week. Don't know what dept. but they're not engineers (technicians of some sort I believe).

He was told to keep his short list updated as they will likely have a second round of layoffs in 2-4 months if conditions don't improve. Obvious statement is obvious, but it was implied that more cuts will be headed towards his group in the near future.

Im a pm for a pipeline company. In 2007, we were able to build a lot of new assets at a fraction of the cost because every vendor and contractor was desperate. Starting to see it again. Union contractors begging for work. That's when you know it's bad. A lot of financially sound companies are going to come out of this downturn really well.

I have my entire floor singing that song now...

What's everyone's opinion on when we'll see the bottoming out of oil prices? It looks like there was a mini-rally today in the stock market. Not sure what to make of it.

For those who do invest regularly, what are you doing to mitigate your losses while oil and gas are so far down? Obviously diversification is good, but what sort of industries do you feel are performing well right now?

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I have my entire floor singing that song now...

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our trading floor too

I read an analysis this week that had an interesting take. They attributed the bump we had the other day to options day (moving from Feb to March options) and also attributed a 20-25% lower price to paper speculation, which they felt was abnormal. They attributed a about a 16% increase in price to paper speculation back when it was breaking $100 a while back. I think this calculation is based on the ratio of short/long options and the volume of paper barrels vs wet barrels, but they didn't make it clear how they came up with that number.

That seems like a lot and seems like we should revert to the mean soon, but what do I know.

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A little humor in these turbulent times (from TPH Friday Humor):

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2014/12-overflow/20141224_HYEP.jpg

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A little humor in these turbulent times (from TPH Friday Humor):

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2014/12-overflow/20141224_HYEP.jpg

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I saw that this morning.

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A little humor in these turbulent times (from TPH Friday Humor):

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2014/12-overflow/20141224_HYEP.jpg

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HAHA my office loves this. It's stuck in everyone head now.

i'm going to print this and put it on the wall

who are you with?

Lasalle Investment has backed out of preliminary deal to buy 1000 Main downtown for estimated $450mil.

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Lasalle Investment has backed out of preliminary deal to buy 1000 Main downtown for estimated $450mil.

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Yikes!

They have a backup offer for $10MM less so they'll probably still get a deal done. I think the backup offer is still the highest price per SF ever paid for office space in Houston.

I remember about the deal being at a fairly high price, I just didn't realize how high

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Be-Prepared-For-An-Oil-Price-Spike.html

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EngrOG,

Are you in Midland? If so, I think we may work for the same company.

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Yep. Shoot me an email texagsmember at gmail

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EngrOG,

Are you in Midland? If so, I think we may work for the same company.

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Yep. Shoot me an email texagsmember at gmail

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You have mail.

I'm betting the Hilton garden inn in Odessa is no longer 320 per night.

Word is the 9000 SLB is letting go hasn't been notified yet... Talk about a long weekend or 2.

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Word is the 9000 SLB is letting go hasn't been notified yet... Talk about a long weekend or 2.

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Any idea on where these layoffs will be. Mostly North America?

I was in Gonzales this week. RV camps are looking a lot emptier from my last time there at the end of November. Fewer people at the usual bar hangouts. And a lack of the blue coveralls usually running around.