Oil and Gas Stocks

. . . It stands to reason that companies involved in the repair of oil facilities on the Gulf coast will have plenty of new work. While some of that new business has already been built into the stock prices of those companies, the further effects of Rita are yet to be seen as the storm looms toward the Texas coast. Companies involved in repair include Oceaneering International (NYSE: OII), which inspects and repairs underwater infrastructure of oil facilities and Global Industries (Nasdaq: GLBL), a rig repair company. Oceaneering recently authorized approximately $40 million in a variety of new capital projects, of which $20 million is anticipated to be spent in 2005. The company stated it was making these investments in "response to the escalation in market demand for the niche market products and services we provide."

. . . Open the spigots. Hurricane Rita has caused a slowdown in natural gas facilities in the Gulf Coast, so look for natural gas producers like Chesapeake Energy, which were not affected by Rita, to further rev up production.

. . . Refineries Rule. While all sectors of the oil business have been up, refineries have risen the furthest. Some cooling had been expected in the Fall, but Katrina's rampage has changed the game, and the refinery earnings boom looks like it will go into extra innings, extending for another year. While Valero's (NYSE: VLO) price is over 100, refineries with room to grow into the century mark include Frontier Oil (NYSE: FTO), Holly Corp (NYSE: HOC), and Tesoro (NYSE:TSO).

. . . Dune in the Bayou - Dune Energy (AMEX:DNE) has entered into a participation agreement with American Natural Energy Corporation (ANEC) (Vancouver:ANRU.V). Dune will acquire certain exclusive exploration and development rights in ANEC's Joint Development Agreement with ExxonMobil, covering approximately 11,000 contiguous acres in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana (the "Bayou Couba Field''). The Bayou Couba Field has 30 potentially productive sands. Preliminary analysis indicates numerous hydrocarbon traps at depths ranging between 4,000 and 20,000 feet.

ANEC reported that damage from Hurricane Katrina was minimal and that production has resumed. And Parker Drilling (NYSE: PKD), a Houston-based, global energy company specializing in offshore drilling, had no structural damage to its rigs in the path of Katrina.

. . . Underwater contract - ENSCO (NYSE:ESV) has entered into a drilling contract with a consortium of three independent oil companies to provide a new ultra-deepwater semisubmersible drilling rig, to be named ENSCO 8500. The aggregate revenue expected to be paid under the contract during the four-year primary term is approximately $385 million, which includes approximately $20 million payable upon delivery of the rig.

From: InvestingIN Oil and Gas

More on oil stocks
* * *
To read about the potential of Canada's Oil Sands region and the stocks that can benefit, read the article:
The Biggest Oil Opportunity in the World - and how you can profit from it

Smallcap and Microcap Stocks

Sun New Media Inc. (OTCBB:SNMD) has acquired 100% of the issued and outstanding share capital of Sun New Media Group Ltd. from Shanghai based Sun Media Investment Holdings Ltd. ("SMIH"). The Company began trading under the new symbol "SNMD" on September 20, 2005...

The new management team includes Kay Koplovitz. Ms. Koplovitz is the Founder of USA Networks, and was the first female network president in television history, serving as chairman and CEO from 1977 to 1998. Under her direction, USA became the largest provider of original basic cable programming. Ms. Koplovitz also launched the Sci-Fi The Company aims to secure a major share of the multimedia market in China, which is expected to become the largest sector in the Chinese economy by 2010, exceeding aggregate revenues of $181 billion. RMB 1500 Billion(See note) (USD 181 Billion).

From The Smallcap Recap Report

Biotech Stocks

. . . Comeback for silicon breast implants? The FDA gave conditional approval to Inamed (NasdaqNM:IMDC) to market silicon gel breast implants. In an approval letter, the FDA outlined conditions that must be met before the implants could be widely distributed in the U.S. Access to silicone-gel implants has been restricted in the U.S. since 1992. Since then, saline filled implants have been the standard, however many women and surgeons say that silicon implants are more natural-looking.

. . . Cheering the competition - When the FDA recently recommended the approval of Pfiizer's, Exubera, an inhaled insulin therapy and a competitor to Biosante's (Amex:BPA) product, Biosante cheered. Why so happy? In preclinical studies, Biosante's inhalable insulin delivery system has reported superior results. For Biosante's product, pulmonary insulin formulation offered about 60 percent absolute bioavailability. By comparison, the bioefficacy of the Exubera inhaled insulin is approximately 10 percent, according to data presented at a American Diabetic Association annual meeting.

From InvestingIN Biotech

More on biotech stocks