| James Crandell, who held the No. 2 spot for the past two years, lands at No. 3 this year. The Dahlman Rose & Co. researcher “has a wealth of knowledge about the industry, and his enthusiasm for his work is unmatched by almost any other sell-side analyst I’ve worked with,” one fund manager says. Crandell is “broadly positive” on the group because “we’re in the early stages of at least a five- to seven-year global upcycle for exploration and production spending,” he says, citing strong increases in ultradeepwater drilling and in horizontal shale drilling. Consequently, he advises clients to invest in three groups of stocks: large diversified oil service names such as Houston-based Halliburton Co. and Schlumberger, and Switzerland’s Weatherford International; offshore-rig companies, especially ones with significant ultradeepwater exposure, including U.K.-based Ensco, Switzerland’s Noble Corp. and Ocean Rig UDW of Cyprus; and equipment companies or service providers — for example, National Oilwell Varco and Oceaneering International, both of which are headquartered in Houston, and Tidewater of New Orleans — that benefit from an uptick in drilling. RUNNER(S)-UP J. David Anderson Scott Gruber Angeline Sedita |
