Oil

Ceri Jones

Major oil companies may be making huge profits, but with little or no production growth, resources are in tight supply. Smaller exploration companies have the potential for growth, but it's a risky business.

Ceri Jones

Solar, wave, tidal, hydrogen, and nuclear power are all exciting energy sources, but risky. Just as selling shovels is good business in a gold rush, investing in supporting industries could be a safer bet for investors keen to join the alternative energy bandwagon.

Peter Temple

Spread betting, contracts for difference and exchange traded funds are all methods of trading the oil price cleanly. Do it this way and you don't have to get your hands dirty weighing up management, political risk and company finances.

Peter Temple

Valuing oil stocks is a tricky business involving the analysis of reserves and the computation of cash-flows. Even then investors are prepared to pay wildly different prices depending on where the company operates.

Peter Temple

Weighing up the multitude of factors that determine oil prices is no mean feat. With the seemingly unquenchable thirst of India and China, and political instability in Saudi Arabia, the race is on to find alternative sources. The best that can be said now is that the one thing oil prices are not going to be, is stable.