Rigs Could Be Your Best Energy-Trade Platform

Now that the smoke has cleared on the oil and gas stocks and they are viewed as having some upside at last, it is time to consider what happened during the big selloff.

First, the cost of renting a rig went up. That's right, it went up. You probably didn't even notice it, but the Brazilians, which had shunned deepwater drilling that needs Transocean (RIG - commentary - Cramer's Take) rigs, came back in and came back in big. The analysts weren't oblivious, they talked about how RIG will have too much cash and will have to find creative ways to return it to shareholders. Meanwhile, you saw the article about Freeport-McMoRan (FCX - commentary - Cramer's Take) drilling deep, again something that, if it hit, would need more Transocean drilling platforms.

You also got a monster quarter from Lufkin (LUFK - commentary - Cramer's Take), something nobody seemed to care about, even as this largely oilfield pumping unit company is really an important part of the deepwater drilling complex.

Finally if there is so much drilling to be done and so few rigs, you can bet that National Oilwell Varco (NOV - commentary - Cramer's Take) is going to outperform, and there were a number of number-bumps in that name during the selloff.

Again, none of this mattered during the free-fall period.

It will matter during this selling respite.

The only concern I have about this group in the near term is that there are a lot of people buying the stocks off of tropical storm opportunities. That's just an awful group of shareholders, so be aware of that cohort of potential sellers.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Freeport-McMoRan and National Oilwell Varco.

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