Best Oil Stocks For 2014

The United States is overflowing with oil. In fact, the Energy Information Administration thinks the country could realistically produce 6 million to 8 million barrels of oil per day over the next three decades. The institution's high estimate exceeds 10 million barrels per day. Canadian production isn't doing too bad, either, although supporting infrastructure is less developed for our northerly neighbors. That bodes well for the companies pumping it out of the ground, but it also represents a big opportunity for the companies transporting and refining crude oil.

Here are four of the best investments supporting oil drillers.

Canadian National Railway (NYSE: CNI  )
Canadian National Railway is one company trying to bail-out Canada's ailing pipelines. In 2010 the company didn't move one carload of crude oil. This year it is expected to "choo-choo" its way to 60,000 carloads of oil from the country. This business in particular has boosted sales and income each year since 2010. Investors have to like that growth and where things are headed in the long term. Canadian National is cutting checks totaling $1.9 billion this year to repair its railways, accommodate growth needs, and purchase new freight cars, including new natural-gas powered models. �

10 Best Oil Stocks To Buy Right Now: SM Energy Co (SM)

SM Energy Company (SM Energy), incorporated in 1915, is an independent energy company. The Company is engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (referred to as oil, gas, and NGLs) in onshore North America. The Company�� operations are focused on five operating areas in the onshore United States. In December 2011, the Company closed on its acquisition and development agreement with Mitsui E&P Texas LP (Mitsui), an indirect subsidiary of Mitsui & Co. Ltd., which transferred 12.5% of its working interest in certain non-operated oil and gas assets in South Texas. In August 2011, the Company sold approximately 15,400 net operated acres in LaSalle and Dimmit Counties, Texas to Talisman Energy USA Inc. and Statoil Texas Onshore Properties LLC (collectively, Talisman/Statoil). In June 2011, the Company completed the divestiture of certain assets located in its Mid-Continent region. In January 2011, it completed the divestiture of certain assets located in its Rocky Mountain region. In December 2013, SM Energy Co announced that it had closed its previously announced Anadarko Basin divestiture package.

As of December 31, 2011, the Company had working interests in 1,353 gross (741 net) productive oil wells and 2,928 gross (1,060 net) productive gas wells. All of its drilling activities are conducted using independent drilling contractors. As of December 31, 2011, it had 415.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent of proved undeveloped reserves.

South Texas & Gulf Coast Region

Operations for the South Texas & Gulf Coast region are managed from its office in Houston, Texas. The Company�� operations in South Texas & Gulf Coast Region focus primarily on its Eagle Ford shale program. Its acreage position covers a portion of the western Eagle Ford shale play, including acreage in the oil, the NGL-gas, and the dry gas windows of the play. During the year ended December 31, 2011, it had approx! imately 250,000 net acres in the play, which consisted of an approximate 165,000 net acre operated position in Webb, Dimmit, and LaSalle Counties, Texas and an approximate 85,000 net acre non-operated position in Maverick, Dimmit, LaSalle, and Webb Counties, Texas. As of December 31, 2011, it had approximately 196,000 net acres in the play. During 2011, the production was 69.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent.

Rocky Mountain Region

Operations for the Company�� Rocky Mountain region are managed from its office in Billings, Montana. During 2011, the Company focused on Bakken/Three Forks formations in the North Dakota portion of the Williston Basin, where it had approximately 87,000 net acres.

Mid-Continent Region

Operations for the Company�� Mid-Continent region are managed from its office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Company�� operations in the Mid-Continent region are primarily focused on the horizontal development of the Granite Wash formation in western Oklahoma. Its Mid-Continent region also manages its Woodford shale assets. In 2011, its Mid-Continent region's production was 31.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent. Proved reserves during 2011 were 234.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent.

ArkLaTex Region

The Company�� focus on the ArkLaTex region has been the horizontal development of its Haynesville shale acreage. In 2011, production in its ArkLaTex region was 30.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent.

Permian Region

Operations for the Company�� Permian region are managed from its office in Midland, Texas. The Company�� Permian region covers western Texas and eastern New Mexico. Its primary area of development focus in this region is the Wolfberry tight oil play. During 2011, the region�� production was 11.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Shares of SM Energy Company (NYSE: SM) were down 17.47 percent to $73.93 after the company reported downbeat quarterly earnings. KeyBanc downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold.

Best Oil Stocks For 2014: Rose Rock Midstream LP (RRMS)

Rose Rock Midstream, L.P., incorporated on August 5, 2011, owns, operates, develops and acquires a diversified portfolio of midstream energy assets. The Company is engaged in the business of crude oil gathering, transportation, storage, distribution and marketing in Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas. It serves areas that are through its exposure to the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and Montana, the Denver-Julesburg Basin (DJ Basin) and the Niobrara Shale in the Rocky Mountain region, and the Granite Wash and the Mississippi Lime Play in the Mid-Continent region. The Company�� operations are conducted through, and the Company�� operating assets are owned by, its wholly-owned subsidiary, Rose Rock Midstream Operating, LLC, and its subsidiaries.

Cushing Storage

The Company owns and operates 28 crude oil storage tanks in Cushing with an aggregate storage capacity of approximately 7.0 million barrels and an additional 600,000 barrels of storage. The Company�� storage terminal has a combined capacity to deliver 480,000 barrels of crude oil per day, and has inbound connections with the White Cliffs Pipeline from Platteville, Colorado, the Great Salt Plains Pipeline, the Cimarron Pipeline from Boyer, Kansas, its Kansas and Oklahoma gathering system and two-way interconnections with all of the other storage terminals in Cushing.

Kansas and Oklahoma System

The Company owns and operates an approximately 640-mile crude oil gathering and transportation pipeline system and over 660,000 barrels of associated storage in Kansas and northern Oklahoma. This system gathers crude oil from throughout the region and delivers it to third-party pipelines and refineries and its Cushing terminal. During the years ended December 31, 2012, the Company�� transported an average of approximately 52,000 and 36,000 barrels per day, respectively, from multiple receipt points. The system has pipeline diameters ranging from 4 to 12 inches and! has 25 pump stations. This system also includes 18 truck unloading stations.

Bakken Shale Operations

The Company owns and operates a crude oil gathering, storage, transportation and marketing business in the Bakken Shale area in western North Dakota and eastern Montana. Using its fleet of trucks and two truck unloading facilities, the Company purchase crude oil at the wellhead, transport it through its trucks and third-party pipelines, including the Enbridge North Dakota System, and market it to customers. The Company owns tanks in Trenton and Stanley, North Dakota, with an aggregate storage capacity of 61,800 barrels that connect into the Enbridge North Dakota System. During the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company handled and marketed an average of approximately 7,100 barrels per day.

Platteville Facility

The Company owns and operates a modern, sixteen-lane crude oil truck unloading facility in Platteville, Colorado, which connects to the origination point of the White Cliffs Pipeline. Much of the crude oil production from the DJ Basin and the nearby Niobrara Shale must initially be transported by truck due to a shortage of gathering capacity. Throughput at the facility averaged 43,500 and 32,400 barrels per day for the years ended December 31, 2012. The facility includes 230,000 barrels of crude oil storage capacity. The Platteville facility also allows customer pipeline gathering systems to connect to the origination point of the White Cliffs Pipeline.

The Company competes with Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P., Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P., Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., Blueknight Energy Partners, L.P., Enterprise Products Partners L.P, MV Purchasing, LLC, Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., National Cooperative Refinery Association, Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. and Eighty Eight Oil LLC.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Robert Rapier]

  Rose Rock Midstream (NYSE: RRMS) isn’t a name we have discussed much here. RRMS is an MLP that owns oil-gathering, storage and transportation assets in Colorado, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas. The MLP was formed by midstream energy giant SemGroup (NYSE: SEMG), which acts as the general partner. RRMS had its IPO in December 2011 with an initial EV of $1.2 billion and a minimum yield of 4.7 percent.

Best Oil Stocks For 2014: HollyFrontier Corp (HFC)

HollyFrontier Corporation (HollyFrontier), formerly Holly Corporation, incorporated in 1947, is a petroleum refiner, which produces light products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, specialty lubricant products, and specialty and modified asphalt. HollyFrontier operates in two segments: Refining and Holly Energy Partners, L.P. (HEP). The Refining segment includes the operations of its El Dorado, Tulsa, Navajo, Cheyenne and Woods Cross Refineries and NK Asphalt. The HEP segment involves all of the operations of HEP. The Company merged with Frontier Oil Corporation (Frontier), on July 1, 2011. On November 9, 2011, HEP acquired from the Company certain tankage, loading rack and crude receiving assets located at its El Dorado and Cheyenne Refineries.

Refinery Operations

The Company�� refinery operations serve the Mid-Continent, Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions of the United States. HollyFrontier owned and operated five refineries having an aggregate crude capacity of 443,000 barrels per day, as of December 31, 2011. During the year ended December 31, 2011, gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and specialty lubricants represented 48%, 32%, 5% and 3%, respectively of its total refinery sales volumes. Its refineries are located in El Dorado, Kansas, (the El Dorado Refinery), Tulsa, Oklahoma (the Tulsa Refineries), which consists two production facilities, the Tulsa West and East facilities, a petroleum refinery in Artesia, New Mexico, which operates in conjunction with crude, vacuum distillation and other facilities situated 65 miles away in Lovington, New Mexico (the Navajo Refinery), Cheyenne, Wyoming (the Cheyenne Refinery) and Woods Cross, Utah (the Woods Cross Refinery). Light products are shipped by product pipelines or are made available at various points by exchanges with other parties and are made available to customers through truck loading facilities at the refinery and at terminals.

The Company�� principal customers for gasoline include other refin! ers, convenience store chains, independent marketers, and retailers. Diesel fuel is sold to other refiners, truck stop chains, wholesalers, and railroads. Jet fuel is sold for military and commercial airline use. Specialty lubricant products are sold in both commercial and specialty markets. LPG�� are sold to LPG wholesalers and LPG retailers. HollyFrontier produces and purchases asphalt products that are sold to governmental entities, paving contractors or manufacturers. Asphalt is also blended into fuel oil and is either sold locally or is shipped to the Gulf Coast. Tulsa West facility is 85,000 barrels per stream day refinery in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It owns Tulsa East facility is 75,000 barrels per stream day refinery that is also located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In September 2011, HEP completed the Tulsa interconnecting pipeline project which facilitated a combined crude processing rate of 125,000 barrels per stream day. The El Dorado Refinery is a coking refinery.

The El Dorado Refinery is located on 1,100 acres south of El Dorado, Kansas and is a refinery. The principal process units at the El Dorado Refinery consists of crude and vacuum distillation; hydrodesulfurization of naphtha, kerosene, diesel, and gas oil streams; isomerization; catalytic reforming; aromatics recovery; catalytic cracking; alkylation; delayed coking; hydrogen production, and sulfur recovery. Supporting infrastructure includes maintenance shops, warehouses, office buildings, a laboratory, utility facilities, and a wastewater plant (Supporting Infrastructure) and logistics assets owned by HEP, which includes approximately 3.7 million barrels of tankage, a truck sales terminal, and a propane terminal. The facility processes approximately 135,000 barrels per stream day of crude oil with the capability. The Tulsa West facility is located on a 750-acre site in Tulsa, Oklahoma situated along the Arkansas River. The principal process units at the Tulsa West facility consists of crude distillation (with light ends recovery), n! aphtha hy! drodesulfurization, catalytic reforming, propane de-asphalting, lubes extraction, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) dewaxing, delayed coker and butane splitter units.

Tulsa West facility�� Supporting Infrastructure includes approximately 3.2 million barrels of feedstock and product tankage, of which 0.4 million barrels of tankage is owned by Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (Plains), and an additional 1.2 million barrels of tank capacity was out of service, as of December 31, 2011. The Tulsa East facility is located on a 466-acre site also in Tulsa, Oklahoma situated along the Arkansas River. The principal process units at the Tulsa East facility consists of crude distillation, naphtha hydrodesulfurization, fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), isomerization, catalytic reforming, alkylation, scanfiner, diesel hydrodesulfurization and sulfur units. The Tulsa East facility�� Supporting Infrastructure includes approximately 3.75 million barrels of tankage capacity on the refinery�� premises, of which approximately 3.4 million barrels of tankage is owned by HEP. The primary markets for the El Dorado Refinery�� refined products are Colorado and the Plains States, which include the Kansas City metropolitan area.

The gasoline, diesel and jet fuel produced by the El Dorado Refinery are primarily shipped via pipeline to terminals for distribution by truck or rail. The Company ships product via the NuStar Pipeline Operating Partnership L.P. Pipeline to the northern Plains States, via the Magellan Pipeline Company, L.P. (Magellan) mountain pipeline to Denver, Colorado, and on the Magellan mid-continent pipeline to the Plains States. The Tulsa Refineries��principal customers for conventional gasoline include Sinclair Oil Company (Sinclair), other refiners, convenience store chains, independent marketers and retailers. Sinclair and railroads are the primary diesel customers. Jet fuel is sold primarily for commercial use. The refinery�� asphalt and roofing flux products are sold via truck or! railcar ! directly from the refineries or to customers throughout the Mid-Continent region primarily to paving contractors and manufacturers of roofing products. HollyFrontier�� Tulsa West facility also produces specialty lubricant products sold in both commercial and specialty markets throughout the United States and to customers with operations in Central America and South America.

The El Dorado Refinery is located about 125 miles, and the Tulsa Refineries are located approximately 50 miles from Cushing, Oklahoma, a crude oil pipeline trading and storage hub. Both its Mid-Continent Refineries are connected via pipeline to Cushing, Oklahoma. In addition, the Company has a transportation services agreement to transport up to 38,000 barrels per calendar day of crude oil on the Spearhead Pipeline from Flanagan, Illinois to Cushing, Oklahoma, enabling it to transport Canadian crude oil to Cushing for subsequent shipment to either of the Company�� Mid-Continent Refineries or to its Navajo Refinery. The Navajo Refinery has a crude oil capacity of 100,000 barrels per stream day.The Navajo Refinery�� Artesia, New Mexico facility is located on a 561-acre site and is a refinery with crude distillation, vacuum distillation, FCC, residuum oil supercritical extraction, (ROSE) (solvent deasphalter), hydrofluoric (HF) alkylation, catalytic reforming, hydrodesulfurization, mild hydrocracking, isomerization, sulfur recovery and product blending units. Supporting Infrastructure includes approximately 2 million barrels of feedstock and product tankage, of which 0.2 million barrels of tankage are owned by HEP.

The Artesia facility is operated in conjunction with a refining facility located in Lovington, New Mexico, approximately 65 miles east of Artesia. The principal equipment at the Lovington facility consists of a crude distillation unit and associated vacuum distillation units. Supporting Infrastructure includes 1.1 million barrels of feedstock and product tankage, of which 0.2 million barrels of! tankage ! are owned by HEP. The Lovington facility processes crude oil into intermediate products that are transported to Artesia by means of three intermediate pipelines owned by HEP. The Navajo Refinery primarily serves the southwestern United States market. The Navajo Refinery primarily serves the southwestern United States market. The Company�� products are shipped through HEP�� pipelines from Artesia, New Mexico to El Paso, Texas and from El Paso to Albuquerque and to Mexico via products pipeline systems owned by Plains and from El Paso to Tucson and Phoenix via a products pipeline system owned by Kinder Morgan�� subsidiary, SFPP, L.P. (SFPP). In addition, the Navajo Refinery transports petroleum products to markets in northwest New Mexico and to Moriarty, New Mexico, near Albuquerque, via HEP�� pipelines running from Artesia to San Juan County, New Mexico.

HollyFrontier has refined product storage through its pipelines and terminals agreement with HEP at terminals in El Paso, Texas; Tucson, Arizona; and Artesia, Moriarty and Bloomfield, New Mexico. The Company uses a common carrier pipeline out of El Paso to serve the Albuquerque market. In addition, HEP leases from Mid-America Pipeline Company, L.L.C., a pipeline between White Lakes, New Mexico and the Albuquerque vicinity and Bloomfield, New Mexico. HEP owns and operates a 12-inch pipeline from the Navajo Refinery to the leased pipeline, as well as terminalling facilities in Bloomfield, New Mexico, which is located in the northwest corner of New Mexico, and in Moriarty, which is 40 miles east of Albuquerque. The Navajo Refinery is situated near the Permian Basin. The Company purchases crude oil from independent producers in southeastern New Mexico and west Texas, as well as from oil companies.

HollyFrontier also purchases volumes of isobutane, natural gasoline and other feedstocks to supply the Navajo Refinery from sources in Texas and the Mid-Continent area that are delivered to its region on a common carrier pipeline ! owned by ! Enterprise Products, L.P. The Cheyenne Refinery has a crude oil capacity of 52,000 barrels per stream day and the Woods Cross Refinery has a crude oil capacity of 31,000 barrels per stream day. The Cheyenne Refinery processes Canadian crudes, as well as local sweet crudes, such as that produced from the Bakken shale and similar resources. The Woods Cross Refinery processes regional sweet and black wax crude, as well as Canadian sour crude oils into light products. The Cheyenne Refinery facility is located on a 255- acre site and is a refinery with crude distillation, vacuum distillation, coking, FCCU, HF alkylation, catalytic reforming, hydrodesulfurization of naphtha and distillates, butane isomerization, hydrogen production, sulfur recovery and product blending units. Supporting Infrastructure includes approximately 1.6 million barrels of feedstock and product tankage, of which 1.5 million barrels of tankage are owned by HEP.

The Woods Cross Refinery facility is located on a 200-acre site and is a fully integrated refinery with crude distillation, solvent deasphalter, FCC, HF alkylation, catalytic reforming, hydrodesulfurization, isomerization, sulfur recovery and product blending units. Supporting Infrastructure includes approximately 1.5 million barrels of feedstock and product tankage, of which 0.2 million barrels of tankage are owned by HEP. The facility processes or blends an additional 2,000 barrels per stream day of natural gasoline, butane and gas oil over its 31,000 barrels per stream day capacity. The Company owns and operates four miles of hydrogen pipeline that connects the Woods Cross Refinery to a hydrogen plant located at Chevron�� Salt Lake City Refinery. The Cheyenne Refinery primarily markets its products in eastern Colorado, including metropolitan Denver, eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska. Crude oil is transported to the Cheyenne Refinery from suppliers in Canada, Nebraska, North Dakota and Montana via common carrier pipelines owned by Kinder Morgan, Plains All Am! erican Pi! peline and Suncor Energy, as well as by truck.

The Woods Cross Refinery obtains its supply of crude oil from suppliers in Canada, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado as delivered via common carrier pipelines that originate in Canada, Wyoming and Colorado. HollyFrontier manufactures and markets commodity and modified asphalt products in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Texas and northern Mexico. The Company has three manufacturing facilities located in Glendale, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Artesia, New Mexico. The Company's Albuquerque and Artesia facilities manufacture modified hot asphalt products and commodity emulsions from base asphalt materials provided by its refineries and third-party suppliers. The Company�� Glendale facility manufactures modified hot asphalt products from base asphalt materials provided by its refineries and third-party suppliers. HollyFrontier�� products are shipped via third-party trucking companies to commercial customers that provide asphalt based materials for commercial and government projects.

The Company owns Ethanol Management Company, is 25,000 barrels per calendar day products terminal and blending facility located near Denver, Colorado. It also owns a 50% joint venture interest in Sabine Biofuels II, LLC, a 30 million gallon per year biodiesel production facility located near Port Arthur, Texas. The Company owns a 75% joint venture interest in the UNEV Pipeline, a 400 mile 12-inch refined products pipeline from Salt Lake City, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada, together with terminal and ethanol blending facilities in the Cedar City, Utah and North Las Vegas areas and storage facilities at the Cedar City terminal with Sinclair, its joint venture partner, owning the remaining 25% interest. The pipeline has a capacity of 62,000 barrels per calendar day (based on gasoline equivalents). The pipeline was mechanically completed in November 2011.

Holly Energy Partners, L.P.

As of December 31, 2011, the Compa! ny owned ! a 42% interest in HEP, including the 2% general partner interest. HEP owns and operates logistic assets consisting of petroleum product and crude oil pipelines and terminal, tankage and loading rack facilities in the Mid-Continent, Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions of the United States. Revenues are generated by charging tariffs for transporting petroleum products and crude oil through its pipelines and by charging fees for terminalling petroleum products and other hydrocarbons, and storing and providing other services at its storage tanks and terminals. In additioin, HEP owns a 25% interest in the SLC Pipeline LLC (SLC Pipeline) that serves refineries in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. Revenues from the HEP segment are earned through transactions with unaffiliated parties for pipeline transportation, rental and terminalling operations, as well as revenues relating to pipeline transportation services provided for its refining operations. HEP has a 15-year pipelines and terminals agreement with Alon USA, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  This series, brought to you by Yahoo! Finance, looks at which upgrades and downgrades make sense, and which ones investors should act on. Today, as earnings season gets under way in earnest, analysts are busy tweaking their price targets to track changes in earnings and guidance. We'll be taking a look at three such tweaks today, for popular stocks: SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK  ) , Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ  ) , and HollyFrontier (NYSE: HFC  ) .

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Yet Valero and its peers have seen new challenges pop up recently. Price spreads between U.S. West Texas intermediate and European Brent crude oil have narrowed considerably in April, threatening those wide margins. That's especially bad news for HollyFrontier (NYSE: HFC  ) , Tesoro (NYSE: TSO  ) , and Valero, whose western-U.S. exposure has helped those companies benefit the most from cheap mid-continent crude supplies. Phillips 66's recent deal to transport U.S. crude by rail may look a lot less lucrative if spreads narrow further, and Valero and the rest of the industry will inevitably see profits shrink if the financial incentive to export gasoline gets smaller.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Pick a refiner, any refiner, and there’s a good chance it’s lagging the S&P 500′s 24% gain this year. HollyFrontier (HFC), for one, has lost 3.8% in 2013, while Tesoro (TSO) has gained just 7.1% and Marathon Petroleum (MPC) has advanced about 13%.

• [By Aimee Duffy]

  PBF even had a higher mid-continent price per barrel than Valero, who recorded $17.41, but it was not enough to overcome the East Coast price. For the record, both companies were blown away by mid-continent refiner HollyFrontier (NYSE: HFC  ) , which recorded gross margin of $23.32 per barrel.

Best Oil Stocks For 2014: Energold Drilling Corp (EGDFF.PK)

Energold Drilling Corp. provides, directly and through its subsidiaries, contract diamond drilling services for parties principally in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Africa and Asia. The Company, through its subsidiary, designs and manufactures specialty/customized drilling rigs and associated equipment for water well, mineral exploration and geotechnical drilling companies. It, through its subsidiary, also provides drilling and other services to the energy sector in Canada and the United States. It has five segments: Drilling Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America; Drilling South America; Drilling Africa, Asia and Other; Drilling Canada (Corporate); Manufacturing, and Energy. On January 14, 2011 the Company acquired Dando Drilling International Ltd. In April 2013, the Company�� Dando International Drilling Ltd announced that it has established a wholly owned subsidiary, Dando Drilling Services Ltd. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Itinerant]

  Following a period of rampant growth in 2010 and 2011 Energold Drilling Corp (EGDFF.PK) has struggled to remain profitable throughout 2012 and into 2013. The general decline in the resource sector has left its mark on margins and contract volume. The company has maintained a robust balance sheet and can survive further hardship if necessary.

Best Oil Stocks For 2014: Technip (TEC)

Technip, formerly known as Technip SA, is a France-based company that is engaged in project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry, and holds a portfolio of solutions and technologies. The Company operates in three segments: Subsea, Onshore and Offshore. Its main markets include onshore plants, offshore platforms and subsea construction. The Company is present in around 48 countries, and had industrial assets on continents and operates a fleet of vessels for pipeline installation and subsea construction. It operates several subsidiaries, such as AETech, EPD, Subocean group and Front End Re, among others. On August 31, 2012, the Company announced the completion of the Stone & Webster process technologies and associated oil and gas engineering capabilities acquisition from The Shaw Group Inc. In March 13, 2013, it acquired Ingenium AS, an offshore engineering and services company. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sofia Horta e Costa]

  Technip SA (TEC) sank 15 percent, its biggest weekly retreat in more than two years after third-quarter profit missed the average analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg. The oilfield-services provider also cut full-year forecasts for the operating margin and sales at its subsea unit, meaning total sales will miss an earlier target of as much as 9.5 billion euros.