Oil's Well

Oil consumers are paying $4 billion - $5 billion more every day than they did just five years ago, pumping more than $2 trillion to oil companies and oil-producing nations in 2007. If oil prices stay elevated, an obvious approach is to invest in oil stocks, but which ones?

You might skip big oil companies and instead favor companies that are relatively large but still have room for growth. Fund managers can buy them, which may drive up the trading price. Also, Big Oil might buy companies that have some size.

The major oil companies need to increase their assets and this is one way to do so, if they can't do it through drilling. There has been a dearth of acquisitions among energy companies but that could change.

NOTE: Exploration and production (E&P) companies and oil services companies tend to prosper if oil prices remain high.

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