Shiv-Vani, Selan good bets in oil exploration: SMC Capitals

Do you believe there is a direct correlation to the price performance with the price of crude and two, if at all you were to pick and choose from amongst the three or four listed stocks, which one would you pick?

Jagannadham Thunuguntla: Going forward crude oil prices can also be expected to be in three digits very shortly, that should be helping all these companies. Shiv-Vani Oil Exploration is appearing to be a very sensible play in this oil exploration game because 1500 crores of top line and very strong order book of about 2.5 times that of order book. We are talking about a clear visibility of the next upcoming 2-3 years that is quite strong and going forward the projects that are coming up and heavy investments by the ONGC and Oil India should be helping the companies order book further and also the companies trading relatively at a reasonable valuation in comparison to many other companies in the space.

The company makes a compelling case of investment if somebody is looking to play the crude oil game. One more good company in the space is Selan Exploration, this company is also appearing to be quite a sensible play considering their continuous investment on their R&D and the seismic vibration studies they are doing, however, nothing has happened in the company in the last 1-2 years in terms of any new developments. However, their research end should be helping them to getting into some of the new things to help in the coming future, so Selan Exploration and Shiv-Vani makes good bets, so does the HOEC, all three are mid-caps, Shiv-Vani scores a little ahead.