Equitable Resources a Safe Natural Gas Play

Editor's note: Jim Cramer will present his 2009 stock outlook for the first time at TheStreet.com Investment Conference on Saturday, Oct. 25. Limited seating. Act now.

In OPEC we trust. The noises OPEC is making has brought buyers out of the woodwork for oil, and the knowledge someone has of the end of natural gas-stock selling is sending that group skyward.

To me we will know if the move is real if we see: 1. A major oil company step up and buy Chesapeake's (CHK - commentary - Cramer's Take) properties that are for sale, and 2: We go above $7 in nat gas, which would then make these prices way too low.

Unfortunately, even as the nat gas stocks have come down, their dividends are awful and their expenditures are going to be way up. (Although the worries about McClendon's knockout swaps -- the stuff that makes his hedges allegedly come off if nat gas goes to $5 -- will be ending if prices stay here.)

But there is one stock that may be the way to play this, the one that has the second-cheapest finding costs after Ultra (UPL - commentary - Cramer's Take) but has a dividend and that is Equitable Resources (EQT - commentary - Cramer's Take). This company has great long-lived properties just where you need them, in the eastern portion of the country; it has great management and a 3% yield so you will not be stranded if the hedge fund liquidators come back.

It's the compromise name one can latch on to and buy, right here, right now, and feel the safest in the group.

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in stocks mentioned.

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