Share tips: US oil game changer

This US oil giant with drilling rights to an area twice the size of London is great to have in your portfolio, says Paul Hill.

Oil giant Hess is North Dakota's number one gas and number three oil producer, and owns drilling rights of 900,000 acres equivalent to more than twice the size of Greater London. These deposits are onshore, so are cheap to exploit. There is almost no risk of the assets being expropriated by government. Indeed, the chief executive, John Hess, described the acreage as "a game-changer. It is lower risk with more returns. It's great to have in your portfolio."

One small glitch is that due to environmental concerns over fracking' the authorities have been granting drilling permits at a snail's pace. The federal government is evaluating new regulations on the use of chemicals, which has meant the company will miss its target of pumping 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) by the end of 2012.

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Paul gained a degree in electrical engineering and went on to qualify as a chartered management accountant. He has extensive corporate finance and investment experience and is a member of the Securities Institute.

Over the past 16 years Paul has held top-level financial management and M&A roles for blue-chip companies such as O2, GKN and Unilever. He is now director of his own capital investment and consultancy firm, PMH Capital Limited.

Paul is an expert at analysing companies in new, fast-growing markets, and is an extremely shrewd stock-picker.