Half of US Fracking Companies Will Be Sold Off or Closed by End of the Year

The Financial Post reported that half of the 41 fracking companies in the US will be dead or sold by the end of the year due to the huge decrease in spending by oil companies, according to an executive with Weatherford International Plc (NYSE:WFT).

As quoted in the market news:

There could be about 20 companies left that provide hydraulic fracturing services, Rob Fulks, pressure pumping marketing director at Weatherford, said in an interview Wednesday at the IHS CERA Week conference in Houston. Demand for fracking, a production method that along with horizontal drilling spurred a boom in U.S. oil and natural gas output, has declined as customers leave wells uncompleted because of low prices.

There were 61 fracking service providers in the U.S., the world’s largest market, at the start of last year. Consolidation among bigger players began with Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL) announcing plans to buy Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE:BHI) in November for US$34.6 billion and C&J Energy Services Ltd. (NYSE:CJES) buying the pressure-pumping business of Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE:NBR).

Click here to read the full Financial Post report.