Oil Investment

It's black, dirty and a part of almost every topic on TV or in the newspaper. It is not pollution although some cannot talk about it without talking about pollution. The subject is oil and these days, oil investment is looked on with the same disdain as oil itself. While the oil economy has become so huge that it boggles the imagination, oil investment itself should be considered by traders as a big opportunity for them as well.

An unnamed environmentalist once compared the oil companies and their executives to the heads of the tobacco companies who used harmful additives and denied that cigarettes were a threat to health. Without turning this into a moral forum, that simply isn't a valid comparison and while we might not like the huge salaries of oil executives, their business approach is neither harmful nor addictive. The money management and soaring prices make for good business and good oil investment opportunities.

How are tobacco and oil executives different?

The environmentalist's statement was merely a headline grabbing comment. The tobacco companies got very rich concealing information that proved tobacco was harmful and included chemicals that made it more addictive. The oil industry and its executives are guilty of nothing like this and oil investment is not immoral either. They produce and sell the most important commodity in the world. Oil companies are among the very largest companies in the US and have posted the largest profits in the history of investing. Whether buying company stock or investing in oil futures, an investor can find ways to profit along with the oil companies by oil investment.

How is oil the most important commodity?

Think about it; sure you could say food is more important but the big picture proves otherwise. In modern America, only a small percentage of the population produces food; the rest buy their food at the neighborhood grocery. How does that food arrive at the grocery? It is brought by trucks that use oil and gasoline. The two biggest factors on the price of food are the weather and oil. If the weather is bad, food prices rise. If the price of oil rises, food prices rise as well. The same is true of nearly all other products as well; shipping costs can be almost as much as production costs and any rise in the price of oil is likely to be reflected in the price of the product. Oil investment gives a trader the opportunity to make money investing in stocks or futures of the most used and needed commodity in the world.

If you take the theory further, the world would be completely different today if it weren't for oil. Oil powers and lubricates the machines that build businesses, housing, hospitals and all of the other things we take for granted. Without oil most of the things we have today wouldn't be possible. A key to investing in the stock market is finding a company with a product that people need and nothing in the world is in more demand than oil. Oil investments capitalize on the most used commodity known to man.

Opportunities in Oil Investment

Oil investment is going to continue being a wise move, whether investing in corporate stocks or oil futures. Oil related stocks are typically among the best stock picks and the normal ups and downs of oil prices can be very attractive to those who trade futures.

Conclusion

Depending on your perspective, the oil industry is not the evil empire that it is portrayed to be and oil investments can be very attractive. Whether stock investing or commodities trading, oil can be an excellent addition to your investment portfolio. Do your technical analysis, consider your trading plan and make your oil investment work for you.

Oil Investments in Iran and Nigeria

Nigeria is currently contributing tremendous amount of oil and recently the Exxon Mobil has extracted more than 750,000 barrels of crude-oil per day from Nigeria. Exxon Mobil is planning to produce more than 11 billion USD as oil investments, towards the energy sector, in 2011.

The company hopes that, these oil investments may foster the development and the production and it is expected to reach around 1.2 million barrels per day. These farms are situated in the shallow waters of Block OML 104. Lion's share would be yielded from the Erha, and it is expected to deliver more than 150,000 barrels of oil per day. Yoho oil field operated by the Exxon Mobil consists of 400 million barrels of oil and the field is expected to be re-drilled. Nigerian oil sphere is greatly influenced by the Conoco Phillips, Total, Chevron and Agip. From the past several years, the Nigeria has experienced several disputes with Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, since they have surpassed the production limits.

Iran has produced 85 billion US dollars as oil investments, according to the reports declared by the oil ministry of Iran. These oil investments would be used for the fifth development plan of Iran. The minister of Iran mentioned that, the approval was sanctioned for 5 billion US dollars as participation bonds and nearly 9 billion US dollars have been authorized for foreign currency participation bonds. Moreover, the oil ministry of Iran could depend on local oil investments for their future crude-oil endeavors. He also mentioned that, many international investors are interested to furnish oil investments for the energy projects in Iran and the country will warmly welcome those foreign investors. Many Western countries conceive that, the imposed sanctions can arrest the functioning of the Iranian fossil fuel industry but the financial crisis, failure of Western countries and other factors could not cease the operation.

Saltpond Offshore Producing Company Limited, widely known for offshore oil resources has purchased more than 800,000 barrels of crude-oil that cost nearly 90 million dollars. The company has not released any funds to the government, for the barrels of crude-oil purchased earlier. The Saltpond oil fields were renovated by Saltpond Offshore Producing Company Limited during 2002 and previously the company was producing around 500 to 600 barrels of crude per day, but currently the company is extracting only 60 to 100 barrels of crude-oil. The bad financial position of the company has led many service providers to look for judicial intervention. They company was supposed to payback the wealth which was rendered to them.

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Versatile Oil Investment and Oil News

In Malaysia, the energy demand for the forth coming decade is under discussions and the National Key Economic Area, focuses on the Gas, Oil, Oil investments and Energy investment and a dozen of the Entry Point Projects are getting embarked. These Entry Point Projects in Malaysia will be aiming to enhance the Oil and Gas production and heightening the downstream activities and emerge Malaysia as prominent in Asia and make it as the hub for Oil services.

The Entry Point Projects also includes power manufacturing with the use of nuclear energy, appealing many foreign companies towards Malaysia, and spring up many engineering projects, domestic fabricators and to establish storehouse for oil and natural gas. This Entry Point Projects news was declared by Marina Taib, the member of the laboratory, which was organized by the Performance Management and Delivery Unit in the one day Economic Transformation Programme which occurred in the recent times.

The Usan deepwater field, which has its base in Nigeria, will begin its manufacturing within the year 2012; the Usan is third - largest Oil producing company in the Europe and has embarked in its future plans. Guy Maurice, the leader of the Total Nigerian unit in Lagos declared to the newspersons that the Usan field at peak production would yield around 180,000 barrels of Oil each day from the year 2012. Guy Maurice also stated that the investment plans in the previous couple of years was decelerated because of the dubiousness showed by the government on the novel bill proposed on the gas and Oil industry. The bill which was announced, portray that the oil and gas industry regulations will be altered and the tax and the royalties will be increased for the funded. The foreign organizations which trade in Nigeria told that, the recent proposal made by the Government will not fetch more fortune and remarked that it will be unsuccessful to show interest towards the deep water field investment.

The combined venture of the Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc are the largest drillers of the Oil in the Nigeria and the National Petroleum Corp. which is controlled by the State has around fifty nine percent of the total stocks of the above mentioned venture. The Nigeria is ranked as the top most oil producer and it is one of the fifth largest importers of oil and natural gas for the United States.

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Oil Investment In A Turbulent Market - The Basics

With all the turbulence in the oil markets following Hurricane Katrina and the more recent political problems with Nigeria and Iran, many investors are wondering whether they should put some money into oil. Of those investors, many decide after doing some research that the answer is a resounding yes. But that is about as far as they get.

The number of ways to invest in oil is staggering, reflecting petroleum's deep integration with many facets of our economy: industry, transport, power generation, food production. Let's take a look at a few of the more common ways investors can get started in oil.

Managed Funds For Oil?

One of the simplest ways to entangle your money with oil is to select a mutual fund that specializes in it. Areas of specialty differ, from the relatively high-risk funds that invest in exploration for new oil deposits to the relatively conservative funds that deal directly in oil company stocks.

The real advantage of this method is that you can get detailed information before throwing your money in, by contacting the fund you are interested in and requesting a prospectus. Inside you will find analysis of the fund performance in relation to benchmark funds, and general information about the fund's philosophy and investing style.

What About Individual Stocks?

The number of major oil companies has been dwindling as diminishing oil reserves are bought out by the remaining giants. If you have any doubts as to whether oil production is in decline, consider British Petroleum - which no longer exists. They changed their corporate name to Beyond Petroleum. Clearly, they see an end to the current energy market somewhere in the future.

So, if there are going to be shake-ups in the oil market you should avoid putting your money in right? Not at all. In fact, as a result of Hurricane Katrina most oil companies pulled in record profits. The demand for oil isn't going anywhere, and if production declines the oil companies can simply charge more for their oil. Higher prices mean higher mark-ups, which means higher profits. In 2004, despite declining reserves, Exxon posted their highest profit ever. A carefully researched portfolio of major oil company stocks may be a hot bet if you're not into mutual funds.

Commodities, Commodities, Commodities:

A few general words about commodities. Perhaps the most risky, and conversely the most potentially profitable oil investment, is oil futures trading. A futures contract is an agreement to buy so many barrels of oil, at a set price, on a set date. If you know the price of oil is going to be way up a year from now, but you can lock in today's prices with a future contract - well, you see how it could work.

The major obstacle to futures trading is up-front cash. Unlike stocks, where you can open and fund an account online these days with as little as $500-$1000, most commodity brokers are going to want a significant deposit of $5000 or higher. But if you have courage, money, and a keen trading sense futures are definitely an option.

While no investment should be made without extensive research, betting that the black gold is going to get more golden is an idea with strong fundamentals backing it.

Oil Investment Accrues Across the World

The Exxon Mobil Corp. has made an agreement to purchase around $4 billion stocks of the oil fields sited at the coastal regions of Ghana, according to the individuals involved in this large deal, this will bridgehead to the main oil manufacturing region. This deal is an unprecedented one made by the Exxon Mobil Corp. for the past two decades and the company believes that the cost of the oil will be increased soon and many projects are still pending due to the high level of insecurity that has been raised by many people. The Nigerian oil companies are at great zeal with the determined Petroleum Industry Bill; this bill was carried out by the Government and the Petroleum Industry Bill has made few alterations in their contracts, this may affect the comfort level of many oil companies.

Kingsley Ojoh, Nigerian Association Petroleum Exploration former president declared that, there is no alarming causes for the oil investment in the neighboring nations, since resources of the country is lower than reserves of Nigeria. He also mentioned that, the greatest discovery in the Ghana was the finding of the Jubilee field, which costs around $1.5 billion to $2 billion and he told every investor can confidently invest money on the Jubilee field, so that it will reap great benefits.

The complete info about investing in energy, energy investments, investments in energy is found in the site Oil Investment . In the recent times the oil industry is considered as the affirmative field for investing and the prospects of the oil production has increased tremendously. Neil McMahon, an energy analyst along with Sanford C. Bernstein described that, Exxon Mobil encourages and approves any stuff, the stuff will be trustworthy and people can believe it.

American Petro Hunter is an Exploration and Production Company, the company aims to become an average oil and natural gas manufacturer within a year. The officials declared that, the persisting growth of domestic oil and gas industry will to restore the economic conditions of the United States and it will also contribute to the successfulness of the financial system of the country. American Petro Hunter is aiming to achieve a target of around 1000 Barrels of Energy per day and the company is in rigorous quest for the inland petroleum via exploration and acquisition. The recent reports forecasted that, the crude oil prices has seen a steep fall and it is recovering currently after a five month low. According to the Bloomberg News survey, the Energy Department declared that, the crude oil price in the United States diminished 1.75 million barrels from 357.4 million.

The complete info about investing in energy, energy investments, investments in energy is found in the site Oil Investment. The oil investments and natural gas investments are welcomed by many companies across the world.

Oil Ministry of Egypt Introduces Magnificent Oil Investments Plan

The Oil Ministry of Egypt recently declared that, the international business organizations are planning to produce oil investments and agreements with the oil ministry, to research and explore oil. The oil investments would be utilized for the research operations at the seven Upper pristine regions of Egypt. The petroleum and mineral resource minister of the Egypt Sameh Fahmi said that, the discovery of the oil in the Al-Baraka field in the southern part of the country and the dynamic oil system in the Upper Egypt would cause a tremendous transformation in the petroleum sector of Egypt. South Valley Holding Company of Egypt in 2010, furnished lands in the international auction, after the four discoveries in the Al-Baraka field. The international auction would be closed in the late January 2011. The report declared from the South Valley Holding Company for petroleum sector portrayed that, in the forthcoming financial year, the company would produce oil investments around 90 million US dollars.

The oil investments rendered by the company would be utilized for the drilling a dozen of exploratory wells in Red Sea, Eastern Sahara and Western Sahara. Oil ministry recently mentioned that, the aim of the ministry is to attract magnificent oil investments, which could reach around 2.5 billion US dollars. With the oil investments the oil ministry would render more than 18 oil concessions. The ministry of oil said the Al-Baraka field has awesome production record from the past few years and it is figured to yield more than 25.2 million barrels. The cumulative production of the Al-Baraka field from December 2007 to the current date is, roughly around 300,000 barrels. Sameh Fahmi added that, the ministry would drill a couple of new wells in the Al-Baraka field after the five development wells. The total oil investments in Al-Baraka reached 60 million USD in 2010 and the production during the year accounted to 1,100 barrels per day.

During 2011-2012 the Al-Baraka would make an effort to yield more than 2,000 barrels per day and the investments in oil would reach more heights. The oil investments are increasing each year more significantly in various parts of the world. Many leading international companies are investing in oil sector since it would bring in great deal of profits and it is considered as an important business by the investor. The investing in oil companies are an emerging and a lucrative business, where plenty of people are attracted by this method. A person can enter the investment arena by rendering a small amount and earn greater return on investments.

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Offshore Olive Oil Investment Facts

A unique investment opportunity exists in the production, distribution, and sale of olive oil. Worldwide demand is growing and the supply chain needed to provide high quality oil to the world is in the process of being expanded and improved. There are a number of offshore investment opportunities related to this increase in demand. We look at a specific example of how an investor can become a part of and profit from the response to increasing demand.

The Oil of the Olive

Olive oil is a staple of the Mediterranean diet and has been for thousands of years. It is used in many recipes and is popular on tables and in kitchens across the globe as well as in the Mediterranean Basin. Its popularity has grown and, especially, because of the heart healthy effects of the oil is becoming more popular world wide.

According to the UNCTAD commodities web site page on this oil, it refers exclusively to oil obtained from the fruit of the olive tree and excludes all other oils obtained by using solvents or re-esterification. The term virgin oil only applies to oil produced in a mechanical process and at lower temperatures so as not to damage the oil. Refined oil refers to processed oil that still has the "triglyceric" structure of olive oil. If something else is mixed with the oil it is not marketed as suchl. This last fact is specifically different from many cooking oils which will list a number of possible ingredients such as palm, soy, or corn oil, etc.

This oil has a unique taste and is definitely the preferred oil for Mediterranean style cooking. Because of its unique structure it is the preferred cooking oil for heart healthy diets.

Olive Oil Consumption

The countries around the Mediterranean Basin account for roughly 77% of worldwide consumption. However, this figure is changing. Because the oil is an integral part of the Mediterranean diet it has little room to expand. Because the oil is just entering international markets it has a lot of room to go. According to recent figures the top five consuming nations are as follows:

Italy: 30%
Spain: 20%
Greece: 9%
USA: 8%
France: 4%

Countries that don't rank very high on the list, like Japan, have just caught on to olive oil and are showing exponential growth in consumption.

Olive Oil Production

Olive oil is not just a historic product of the Mediterranean. Roughly ninety-five percent on olive oil is produced in countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. Ninety percent of production comes from the top six producers, Spain, Italy, Greece, Tunisia, Turkey, Syria, and Morocco. Portugal comes in 7th with 1% of worldwide production even though it only borders on the Atlantic Ocean (as well as Spain).

As consumption has grown over the years it is highly doubtful that these countries can cope with the increasing demand. For example, reliable figures say that 60% of cultivatable land in Greece is planted in olive orchards. There is just not a lot of room to expand production on the North Side of the Mediterranean.

Production and consumption grew together through the 1970's to mid 1990's when production tailed off. However, demand for olive oil has continued to grow. Reliable figures and estimates are that olive oil consumption doubled between 1990 and 2000 and will have tripled again by 2020.

The place where the weather is still "Mediterranean" and the soil conditions suitable for growing olives is the North African coast of the Mediterranean. Here is where countries like Algeria and Morocco are catching up with Tunisia with the intent of becoming major olive oil producers and exporters. Algeria is promoting a huge olive tree planting project making available a million hectares (2.5 million acres) of land for orchards.

Investing in Olive Oil

Olive oil investments are not always easy to get into. Production is highly fragmented with orchards historically owned and tended on small properties by families for generations. Refining is more concentrated. For example, in Spain in 1995 there were 80 refining companies including cooperatives. In the major producing countries the market is very competitive and there are typically substantial barriers barring the entry of newcomers.

Due to the expansion of olive production into the North African portion of the Mediterranean Basin here is where more investment opportunity lies. Countries like Algeria are welcoming and inviting investment. An example follows.

A Specific Investment

A Spanish company with an Algerian subsidiary is investing in olive trees in Algeria. It plans to plant 1,500 hectares of which 500 hectares (1,250 acres or roughly two square miles) will be open to private investment.

The company will plant the Arbequinia olive on this land. This olive is fast maturing so that it starts to produce after three years. It is very cold and drought tolerant, and, important for the investor, can be planted in a hyper intensive culture. What this means is that the Arbequinia olive can be planted 1,780 to a hectare. With this level of planting the Arbequinia will produce roughly 11,000 kilo of small brown olives per hectare. Because this olive routinely produces 19% weight per volume of oil it will produce about 2,000 liters of oil per hectare. This fact is useful for investors as return on investment after three years includes payment of $2 per liter of oil produced.

Because the company intends to export high quality olive oil will build its own processing plant in order to insure prompt and professional processing of the Arbequinia olive for export.

Considering the increasing demand for good quality olive oil and the difficulty in investing in the Northern Mediterranean an excellent opportunity may well to invest in a project such as that of this company on the South side of the Mediterranean Sea.

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Oil and Gas Investments - 5 Ways to Invest

There are several ways to invest in the petroleum industry, from easy retail investments to drilling programs for sophisticated investors. Each have a pro and con that we willl address. Below is a list of six basic investment vehicles:

1. Stocks in Oil Companies
2. Working Interest Partner in a Drilling Program
3. Existing working interest in a lease.
4. Stock in royalty trusts
5. Oil and gas royalties direct from mineral owners.

First - The easy, retail investment in petroleum is stocks. Simply call your broker and invest in shares of ExxonMobile, BP, XTO, or any other oil company. They often have low dividend yields of 3-6%, and a nominal growth rate. However, highlighted by the Exxon and BP oil spill, these oil stocks have a disaster risk, and a even greater political risk when congress lets loose its ire. The pro is that you don't have to actively do anything, just buy the stock. The expectation by wall street is a 8% return over time.

Second - Investing as a working interest partner in a group of oil wells has great risk. You can lose your entire investment or make a killing and you don't know which it will be when you invest. Highly volatile in its rewards, this investment can not be considered an investment but a gamble until you have enough money to invest in several drilling programs. At which time, the science of statistics will lower your variance but you will still be at risk of lawsuits, and cost overruns which you'll be obliged to pay. The pro is that millions to billions of dollars can be invested in this market with an expectation of 8 - 12% return. This is the typical investment of choice for billion dollar companies.

Third - Buying a working interest in a currently producing oil or gas lease is less risky than partnering in a drilling program. In this case, the potential for large unexpected expenditures is greatly reduced. On the pro side, the production of the well usually stays constant and the cash flow stream from production is easier to evaluate. The big plus of this investment is a superior return, as investors are shooting for 10-20% return. On the con side, you are still at risk for regulatory compliance and lawsuits from on site accidents. However, the biggest drawback is the need for technical knowledge of oil and gas wells, decline curve analysis and other engineering know how. Further, you have to actively search for those wanting to sell working interest, or go to an auction house like http://www.energynet.com, or Oil and Gas Asset Clearinghouse.

Fourth - Buying stock in royalty trusts is very different than buying shares in an oil company. Royalty trusts are set up with large assets of royalty and overriding interests. Like Permian Basin Royalty Trust (PTB). They have no business operations, only receiving cash flows from royalties. They typically are distributing 95+% of incoming cash as dividends. The pro is that there is no legal or geopolitical risk associated with an oil company. Their expected return is 7% to 9% over time. There is no effort to find these investments as they are offered on the NYSE. These investments are superior to buying oil company stocks for investors past 60 who can't afford investments to lose value.

Fifth - Buying royalties from private owners has several pros. Namely, the return can be quite large at 12-50%. Second, buying the royalties means you are buying the minerals. So if another oil zone is discovered, you'd be entitled to yet another royalty cash flow stream. On the con side, you need to understand how to buy mineral rights. The other problem is finding private owners who want to sell. Blackbeard Data, however, provides data that has all the royalty owners in Texas and Kansas; this can be used to find royalty owners who wish to sell. Another con, is that this is requires active participation. For institutional money, the biggest con is that they can't find enough sellers to invest billions or even hundreds of millions of dollars. Nobel royalties is a major royalty buyer, and they struggle each year to invest tens of millions of dollars. However, due to the large returns and low risk this has become the dominate and preferred investment of individual investors in the oil industry.

So look at your investing needs and pick the investments that are suitable to you.

McCartney Taylor is the president of Blackbeard Data Services. He is involved daily with helping investors find oil and gas royalties to buy.

Blackbeard Data, a leader in oil and gas data warehousing, maintains the world's largest database of oil and gas royalty, overriding royalty, and working interest owners. That database is well over 4 million records at this time. Blackbeard sells this data to individual investors looking to buy oil and gas royalties, and to institutional investment firms as well.

How to Invest in Oil

Investing in commodities is growing as a new form of investment. Many investors are diversifying their portfolios to enter commodities investment like oil and gas. Investing in oil can be a confusing task, especially for new investors. The price fluctuations are large and a simple mistake can cost you lots of money in an instant. But its fluctuations are one of the reasons why most people choose oil and gas as an investment option. By studying and speculating on the price of oil, smart investors can make quick profits in a short period of time - sometimes, in less than a few hours. If you are new to commodities investing and would like to try out investing in oil, here are some simple tips on how to invest in oil.

Before you start investing, you need to know what are the factors that affect the price of oil. The change in demand and supply will cause fluctuations in oil prices. For example, turmoil and war in countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Nigeria have affected the supply of global oil in the past. In terms of demand, rising prices will reduce the demand for oil, while industrialization will increase the demand for the commodity. Another factor that affects oil prices is speculation. Many investors and companies are bidding on oil futures contracts. These contracts let you purchase oil in the future for today's price, regardless of the increase or decrease of price in the future. If there is an increase in price in the coming months, companies have made a profit as their oil future contracts allow them to purchase oil at a cheaper price and vice versa. Trading oil futures are another form of speculation used by traders. The above factors are just examples, as there are many other issues that affect the price of oil.

Next, here are some of the tips on how to invest in oil. If you are new to the field, you will want to consider getting professionals to help you invest in the commodity. By putting your money into mutual funds that invest in oil and gas or other energy-related stocks, you are getting experts to use your money to reap profits. Before investing your money in any mutual fund, make it a point to study the mutual fund to review its past performance and its reputation.
And if you have had some time to study the commodity market, you might want to try a more hands-on approach to investing in oil. In this case, exchange traded funds (ETF) are a good way to start. Similar to the stock market in which you yourself decide when to buy and sell stocks, you are in charge of making the purchase and sales of oil and other commodities. ETFs give you the freedom of doing your own investing based on your own research.

Oil investing and other forms of energy-related investments are growing in popularity as there is always a need for supply of electricity and fuel. Although these investment sectors are profitable, do study the risks and returns well in order to help you make the profitable investments in oil and gas and other related sectors.

Investing in Oil Stocks

Investing in oil stocks seems like a slam dunk way to make a lot of money. After all, the trend of oil prices seems to inevitably creep upward, so the value of the related stocks must do so as well, goes the thinking of unsophisticated investors. However, not only is the perception that oil prices move inexorably upward inaccurate, there is no necessary relation between the price of oil and the price of the stocks associated with it.

There may be no other commodity in the market place as subject to political manipulation as is oil. Given that oil is in virtually universal demand, and demand is growing as Third World countries make a push for economic growth, oil producing countries with political axes to grind, such as those in the Middle East and Venezuela, can send shudders through the oil markets on a whim. These convolutions can have an impact on the price of oil stocks in the short term. However, even politically volatile nations can't afford to turn off the tap indefinitely, so the effect on the long term prices isn't as great as one might think. Historical oil prices and historical oil stock prices have a tendency to be more stable than their short term prices.

This would seem to indicate two things. First, there is money to be made by trading on a daily basis, as short term swings can produce very volatile changes in stock prices. Second, there is money to be made by means of long term investing, as values based on historical performance tend to even out and generate gains based on the long term strategies of particular companies.

For those with the ability and knowledge to follow and assess the significance of short term trends in oil prices on the value of these stocks, trading in the stock of individual companies on a daily basis can create quick profits. However, this is an incredibly demanding task, and investment houses employ armies of highly trained and experienced analysts to keep up with these movements. Rare is the individual investor with such resources, although one can subscribe to services that provide real time updates of the state of the market.

At the other end of the investment strategy spectrum, one can choose to invest in oil related mutual funds. In this case, one puts one's money into the hands of trading specialists who invest in a 'basket' of oil stocks. The shares of these companies are valued at the end of each trading day, and can be bought and sold based on those values. There is no ability to instantly know the value of each share of a mutual fund, so these investments tend to be made for the longer haul than trading in individual stocks.

For those who like the idea of spreading their investment across a number of oil stocks, but also want the ability to make instant trades based on daily market developments, there are exchange traded funds, or ETF's. One can invest one's funds with these funds rather like a mutual fund, but shares of these funds can be traded based on current values as measured throughout each day. It still requires close monitoring of political and other market developments, but the volatility of the investment is reduced by the fact that more than one company is represented by the shares, so developments affecting a particular company are watered down.

Whichever manner of trading one might choose, oil stocks show historical long term gains, in general.

If you enjoyed this article, you can visit this site to read more about oil stocks.