If you are interested in oil and gas investing there are three primary ways you can go about starting your investment. These ways include investing in companies, mutual funds, and commodities. You can make a lot of money in this industry if you are smart about your investments.

Investors consider gas investments to be safe. This is because there are so many ways that someone can invest their money in the industry. You are not limited to only buying stock in a business but there are so many other ways to invest too. It is easy to diversify your portfolio of investments with only oil and gas in the many different ways you can invest.

The primary way to take advantage of oil investments is through company stock. If you find a drilling company that you want to invest in because you believe they will strike oil some time soon you can …

When you look at oil and gas investing there are many ways you can look at the market and the potential investment. You should do plenty of research so you know you are making a good decision with your money. Here are 6 things you can look at to be sure you are about to make a good decision or you should back out.

1. The company. If you are looking into investing in a particular company you must look at everything about them. Check out the history of the company, the executives and board members, and the description of the business. It is also important when researching a business for oil investments to check out the locations and subsidiaries.

2. If recent mergers and acquisitions have occurred you need to research both of the businesses that have combined. Find out about all equity, ventures, and everything about the businesses involved.

3. Research …

Patterson-UTI Inc. (PTEN) reported a narrower-than-expected third-quarter loss of 12 cents per share, reflecting a recovery in rig demand as customers prepare for ramped up drilling activities in 2010. The Zacks Consensus Estimate was pegged at a loss of 16 cents per share.  In the year-ago period, the company earned 69 cents per share. Revenue was down 71.1% year over year to $176.2 million. The negative comparisons compared to the year-ago period reflect lower drilling activity. The number of rigs operating during the quarter averaged 73 (70 located in the U.S. and 3 in Canada), compared to 276 average rigs operating in the third quarter of 2008. However, it was up from 63 rigs operating in the June quarter.  Contract Drilling  Contract Drilling revenue totaled $112.3 million (64% of total revenue), down approximately 77.5% year-over-year. Average revenue per operating day was $16,800, down 5.5% sequentially, while ...

Any industry needs the basics to make it run. Technology needs solid minds while manufacturing needs skilled artisans. Exploration needs data of many kinds. A company that can provide that data, at a reasonable and successful rate, is one that will always profit.

Ion Geophysical Inc., a seismic mapping company, works to map subterranean natural gas and oil structures world-wide. The company, based in Huston, Texas, has recently entered into a financial agreement with a Chinese concern to dramatically reduce debt and enable opportunities for expansion.

Although one may assume that subterranean imaging might be rather straight-forward in nature, it is slightly more varied. In this regard, the company operates through four fairly distinct segments: land based, marine, data assessment and data solutions. Given the four varying segments of the company, it may be said that the company is a full one stop shop for assessing opportunity where searching for minerals, of

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Fossil, Inc. (FOSL) has been cutting costs and inventory as it rides out the rough retail environment. The company surprised on second quarter Zacks Consensus Estimates by 25% and is optimistic for the remainder of the year.

Even though there was an earnings surprise, sales fell 10.6% to $315.9 million from $353.2 million in the year ago period which reflected the difficult economic environment for retailers.

Sales declined 11.1% in the wholesale businesses but increased 21.1% in the direct to consumer segment, which includes the company's Internet site.

Rest of the Year Outlook

The company is more bullish on the fourth quarter, the holiday shopping season, than the third quarter where it will be easier for it to capitalize on gains from the Internet site.

Third quarter earnings per share are forecast between 38 and 42 cents and sales are expected to be in the range of negative

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For Immediate Release

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Here is a summary

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Why would Turkey sign on to a massively expensive and redundant underwater pipeline that would eliminate the transit business at the lucrative but over-trafficked Bosporus Straits?  Because when it comes to Gazprom and Eni's South Stream, it is very different to say you support it than it is to actually build it.  Nabucco is likely to work, and looks like it will find the gas to fill capacity - but not before Ankara does everything possible to milk both sides for the maximum concessions.These editors at Zaman don't quite get the issue right, but there is enough perspective here to get an idea of the Turkish mentality on Russian energy politics (resentful of the perceived mistreatment ...

EnCana Corporation (ECA) – one of the largest inatural gas producers in North America – has inked an agreement with Bonavista Energy Trust to sell non-core Alberta properties for approximately $632 million. The transaction includes about 409,000 net acres of natural gas and oil producing properties. It is expected to close in the third quarter of 2009. The natural gas weighted properties are currently producing 60 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), after royalties. EnCana’s total production is currently 4.64 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day (Bcfe/d). EnCana had set a target to divest $500 million to $1 billion of property during 2009. With this sale, the company has completed a significant portion of its divestiture plan. This sale is in line with EnCana’s strategic shift to exclusively focus on unconventional resources. To make this shift possible, the company had ...

Andrei Illarionov: "Interest in Venezuela - this is part of the big strategy"

Grigory Pasko, journalist

President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev recently carried out visits to the countries of Africa. Before this we observed his voyage to the countries of Latin America. What is this intense interest of the Russian president in such faraway countries brought about by? Why not seek friends and partners in business closer to Russia? Medvedev himself said it this way: "...We did not devote that much attention to sufficiently faraway continents, ones such as Africa, Latin America, but now we are simply duty-bound to do this. This is our close-in-spirit neighbors, this is countries that we really have helped and which, on the

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“Words from the Wise” this week comes to you in a shortened format as I do not have access to my normal research resources while on the road in Europe (also see my post “Gone A.W.O.L. - to Slovenia and Switzerland“). Although very little commentary is provided, a full dose of excerpts from interesting news items and quotes from market commentators is included.

While investors’ hopes of an economic recovery might have got ahead of reality, the cartoonists continually reminded us of worrisome issues …

Source: Signe Wilkinson, Washington Post,  June 18, 2009.

The past week’s performance of the major asset classes is summarized by the chart below - a mixed bag so to speak.

Source: StockCharts.com

A summary of

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