For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 6, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the latest Industry Outlook. Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses the Oil & Gas sector, including CNOOC Ltd. (CEO), China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec (SNP), Cameron International (CAM), Nabors (NBR) and Patterson-UTI (PTEN).

A synopsis of today’s Industry Outlook is presented below. The full article can be read at http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/26953/Oil+%26amp%3B+Gas+Industry.

The strengthening oil price environment should benefit producers, particularly those international players having attractive growth opportunities in their home markets. Two such standout names are China’s CNOOC Ltd. (CEO) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec (SNP), both of which remain well-placed to benefit from the country’s growing appetite for energy.

CNOOC enjoys a monopoly on exploration activities in China’s very prospective offshore region in addition to having a growing presence

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OUTLOOK The improving economic scene, both here in the U.S. as well as worldwide, is the main driver of the current oil rally that has seen the commodity settling around the $80 per barrel level. But high levels of product inventories (particularly gasoline), along with still higher supplies, will limit any sustained crude gains, in our view. But way too many factors weigh on oil prices, from OPEC decisions and geostrategic tensions to the value of the U.S. dollar and seasonal variables, to definitively size up each one of them for their respective impact on prices.  In its latest release, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a less-than-anticipated increase in crude stockpiles, which rose by 800,000 barrels for the week ending October 23. However, current crude oil stocks, at 339.9 million barrels, still remain 9% above the year-earlier level as well as above the upper limit ...

The emerging positive narrative of a favorable outlook for the U.S. economy has done wonders for the markets, particularly equities and commodities. The broad equity markets as well as most commodity groups are up smartly from their early-March lows.

Crude oil's gains have been even more impressive, given its heavy leverage to the health of the global economy. Our view is that oil should be able to hold onto its recent gains and consolidate around current levels, provided this favorable economic view remains in place.

While we have greater confidence in the staying power of the current oil rally, this does not mean that we will not see any short-term pullbacks. On the whole, we expect oil prices in 2010 to be higher than the 2009 levels, but remain significantly below the 2008 peak levels.

Crude oil's near-term fundamentals remain dismal, to say the least. Inventories in the U.S. are at multi-year highs

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The emerging positive narrative of a favorable outlook for the U.S. economy has done wonders for the markets, particularly equities and commodities. The broad equity markets as well as most commodity groups are up smartly from their early-March lows. Crude oil’s gains have been even more impressive, given its heavy leverage to the health of the global economy. Our view is that oil should be able to hold onto its recent gains and consolidate around current levels, provided this favorable economic view remains in place. While we have greater confidence in the staying power of the current oil rally, this does not mean that we will not see any short-term pullbacks. On the whole, we expect oil prices in 2010 to be higher than the 2009 levels, but remain significantly below the 2008 peak levels. Crude oil’s near-term fundamentals remain dismal, to say the least. Inventories ...

div style="text-align: justify;"Barclays is out with an interesting call on span style="font-weight: bold;"Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES)/span upgrading the shares to Overweight from Equal weight and maintaining their $75 price target.br /br /According to the analyst the upgrade comes following recent sharp underperformance. As one of the most oil-levered producers within their research universe, they believe Hess is well positioned to benefit from a rising oil price environment while offering a significant exploration potential upside with no sizable upfront premium.br /br /Firm notes that although they have long been intrigued by the company’s vast long-term resource potential in Brazil, Ghana, Libya, and Australia, they were uncomfortable about the shares’ valuation. They believed the market had prematurely awarded too much premium for its exploration potential and ignored the unavoidable underlying risks associated with such a concentrated high-interest/high-impact drilling program span style="font-weight: bold;"(dry hole is the norm, not the exception, in the Eamp;P business. ...