Invest in China by Starting Small

China North East Petroleum (CNEH.OB) is engaged in the exploration and production of crude oil in Northern China. The company just signed a contract to drill another 48 wells in the next 10 months, taking its total to 303 after the project is completed. Crunch the numbers and that's 18% growth in production in 10 months.

I could outline the advantages of China Energy(CHGY.OB), but I did that recently. Instead, I'll give you a bonus pick that's American. Crimson Exploration (CXPO.OB) is much cheaper than Bucyrus. It's an independent natural gas and crude oil company engaged primarily in the United States, Gulf Coast and South Texas regions.

I'm not telling you that you're not likely to make a lot of money on Bucyrus right now. What I'm saying is that if you have two opportunities, and one of them is more likely to return more money than the other, it would make sense to buy into the one with better returns, right? That said, Bucyrus, in my opinion, is definitely worth more in the long run. It's trading less than its backlog and that's pretty much sinful.

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