Meanwhile, advances in U.S. shale oil production technologies are contributing the to supply surplus and weighing on any oil price gains. It has become much cheaper for the upstart U.S. shale producers to extract oil out of the ground, but the growth rate of U.S. oil product has also recently slowed.
Consequently, with the worst may be behind us, and as we look to a rebalancing act in the oil market, investors may considering a return to the downtrodden energy sector.
“We see selected opportunities in beaten-down energy assets. We prefer shares of exploration and production (E&P) companies, particularly low-cost U.S. shale producers,” Turnill said. “These firms can benefit from technological advances and operate on a short investment cycle.”
ETF investors interested in the oil exploration and production space have a number of options available, including the iShares U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (NYSEArca:IEO), SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (NYSEArca:XOP) and PowerShares Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production Portfolio (NYSEArca:PXE).
IEO follows a traditional market capitalization-weighted indexing methodology, which exposes investors to larger companies like ConcoPhillips, EOG Resources and Phillips. XOP tracks a more equal-weight indexing methodology where most components are weighted at around 2.0% of the overall portfolio. Lastly, PXE is considered a smart beta ETF offering that evaluates companies based on a variety of factors like price momentum, earnings momentum, quality, management action and value.
Furthemore, investors may also consider the VanEck Vectors Unconventional Oil & Gas ETF (NYSEArca:FRAK) as a direct play on North American fracking and oil sands companies.