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Where I am (ND), oil was the major prize. Gas is a byproduct, albeit an increasingly valuable part of the pie due to the devaluation of oil, but also because of the natural gas liquids (NGLs) which can be recovered, including, but not limited to ethane, propane, and butane. (The ethane can be processed into ethylene, used to make plastics, among other things).

Of fraccers, drillers, oil companies, which did you mean?

The oil companies will continue for the most part (they own the rights to and operate the wells). Some will have to divest themselves of some producing or leased assets to retain others.

Some will be better positioned and will buy those assets at favorable prices. It is the usual post boom shuffle.

Drilling companies (the folks who own drilling rigs and drill the holes) will either adapt or die.

There is tremendous emphasis on drilling faster, and the multi-well pad setups today in areas of intense horizontal drilling require different rigs, ones which can walk or otherwise relocate from wellhead to wellhead to cut costs, without being completely dismantled--which takes time and adds about a quarter million per rig move.

I have worked on a few variants on that theme, and those companies will do just fine. Others will drill in areas where a 'walking' rig isn't needed, or will end up selling off a lot of iron for scrap, reworking older rigs, or selling them to overseas companies. (Note: even scrap prices are down). Taking two weeks and $250,000.00 to dismantle, move, and reassemble a rig just won't cut it versus the 36 hour (or faster) 'walking' rig move on a well pad.

That whole paradigm has changed in some areas, and it's adapt or die.

Hydraulic fracturing is done by yet another group of companies. They specialize in that aspect of completions of oil wells, and most will likely survive, provided they aren't heavily leveraged--unless the government somehow finds that excuse they have been looking for to shut the process down.

Service company prices, wages, benefits, will all drop in order to stay in business, partly because demand for the completion services is down at boom prices. Over half of the present cost of a Bakken or Three Forks well is the frac (about $4 million).

Why enhance production from a wellbore to produce more oil at a net loss per barrel?

It is likely that their activity will slump, as the number of wells being drilled is dropping. Eliminate some of the backlog over the next year and the backlog will diminish (there is a light at the end of the tunnel but it is a train), and fewer new wells are being drilled.

If I ran a frac company, I'd go through maintenance logs, get the lemons out of the fleet, and pay off bills to cut leverage.

As an oil company (and this affects the frac companies), I'd configure my production string to be able to produce enough oil to hold the lease, and hold off on the frac until oil prices go back up or frack prices drop.

As for Natural Gas companies, natural gas wells tend to deplete at a fairly high rate. To straight line the curve, seven years and it's a small fraction of the IP (Initial Production).

With plenty of Natural Gas on the market, prices are low, and the only incentive to drill is to hold a lease already paid for which is going to expire without spudding and eventually producing a well. There are a couple of steps that can extend that time a little, but those leases are perishable if not produced, and will have to be leased all over again if the well is not drilled.

The expenses will be weighed, one against the other and decisions made to drill or not.