LNG Stocks That Have Risen Up to 91% in 2011

BG Group (BRGYY) a U.K.-based firm, and originally an international oil exploration and production company, entered the liquefied natural gas industry early on and is now one of the leading global integrated natural gas player with an extensive resource base, and strong and growing production capabilities.

It has natural gas development sites in Egypt, the U.K., Trinidad and Tobago, and Kazakhstan as well as oil resources and production facilities. It supplies natural gas for delivery to high-value markets in the U.S., Europe and its is a major player in Asia due to its huge productioin base in Australia.

Late last month, BG got a setback in Australia as a planned development project that would link LNG production facilities with a port that would serve Asia, was found to violate government environmental operations. However, BG recently said it doesn't expect the delay to have a material impact on the project's scheduled completion date of 2014.

Last October, the company said it would pay $950 million to buy a 50% interest in shale gas assets in Appalachia from EXCO Resources (XC) in an effort to continue to build out and diversify its developable natural gas assets.

Its shares, which trade as ADRs in the U.S., have about doubled over the past 10 months, to $127.60 recently, giving the company a market value of $86 billion.

On March 16, S&P Equity Research raised it to a "buy" rating from "hold." S&P reported it found two "buys" and one "buy/hold," among other analysts' ratings.

A Bank of America (BAC) Merrill Lynch research note from Feb. 9 said BG "has the best near-term earnings growth outlook in the sector, based on our forecasts.

"Furthermore, longer-term the company offers an excellent investment opportunity among the integrated oils, driven by best-in-class exploration and production volume growth, a leading position in global LNG and a material position in a potentially vast new play in Brazil," BofA Merrill Lynch said.

« First ‹ Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next › Last »