Thread regarding Halliburton Co. layoffs

"The rise of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is one of the most important technological breakthroughs of the past decade"

Kerist! I am so tired of the bubble brained fools of the MEDIA always claiming that 'fracking' is something new.

Not only can't they spell the word correctly, but even a minimal amount of RESEARCH would show that this stimulation technique was INVENTED back in the late 1940's. But the lazy, incompetent fools in the MEDIA will also assert that horizontal drilling is something new, completely overlooking the FACT that is how the Austin Chalk, and probably other formations were developed back in the 1970's, and Sperry was successfully drilling MULTI-lateral horizontals in the Persian Gulf back in the mid-1990's.

Without even going into the fact that NO link was provided to verify this assertion, one must admit the fact that Schlumberger saw the future when they exited the FRACCING end of the business, by selling their equipment and technology to Liberty.

But, what is most important, is that Halliburton cannot compete against the second and third tier regional pressure pumping companies in the areas where low pressure, low temperature, horizontal shale completions are the norm. The fluids are the same, the proppant is NON-propriatary, the chemicals are the same, only the trade name differs, the size of the stages are customer approved, and MOST importantly of all, the people behind the service, were, for the most part trained and gained their experience working for Halliburton, be they now employed by the producer, or the competition.
At one time, Halliburton's pumping and blending equipment had NO equal, BUT thanks to Halliburton's deferred maintainance programs, and/or improvements made by the 3rd party suppliers in their pumps and blending/proportioner technology, Halliburton lost whatever lead they may have once had.
Halliburton had NO equal back in the day of 15K+ pressure pumping, whether with the HT-1000, HT-3000 Intensifiers, or even the HT-400 with the 3 3/8 fluid ends, but those days are long gone, just like Halliburton being a 'leader' in any segment of the service industry, with perhaps the execptions of deepwater, or the few high pressure, high temperature, hostile environment wells still being drilled.