5 Best Oil Service Stocks To Own Right Now

5 Best Oil Service Stocks To Own Right Now: Ultra Petroleum Corp.(UPL)

Ultra Petroleum Corp., an independent oil and gas company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, production, and operation of oil and natural gas properties in the United States. It primarily focuses on developing a tight gas sand trend located in the Green River Basin of southwest Wyoming; and assessing, exploring, and developing its position in the Marcellus Shale and other horizons located in the north-central Pennsylvania area of the Appalachian Basin. As of December 31, 2011, the company owned interests in approximately 53,000 net acres in Wyoming covering approximately 190 square miles; 258,000 net acres in Pennsylvania; and 130,000 net acres in eastern Colorado?s Denver Julesburg Basin. Ultra Petroleum Corp. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, oil and natural gas company Ultra Petroleum (NYSE: UPL  ) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

• [By Arjun Sreekumar]

  Breakeven prices for gas producers
  With gas prices currently above $4.25 per MMBtu, the companies most likely to resume or commence gas drilling are the ones that can turn a profit at those prices -- low-cost producers, in other words. According to an analysis by Wells Fargo, Ultra Petroleum (NYSE: UPL  ) , Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK  ) , Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN  ) , and Apache (NYSE: APA  ) were among the industry's lowest-cost producers last year.

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  At that time, natural gas prices were high, and the cost for using new drilling technology was still economically feasible. Even though natural gas prices fell for the next couple of years, gas companies got very good at finding high-pro! bability sites for wells and reducing well completion costs. From 2006 to 2012, gas specialist Ultra Petroleum (NYSE: UPL  ) reduced drilling costs by 30%. Today, the average shale gas well costs somewhere in the range of $3 million to $4 million.

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  Ultra Petroleum (NYSE: UPL  ) also uses hedges to provide certainty to its cash flow. The company has hedged 81.4 billion cubic feet of production through the end of this year. That equates to about half of its production in the next two quarters, and about a quarter of its fourth-quarter production. Ultra is doing this in order to generate the cash flow that's required to meet its capital budget. That will enable the company to drill about 80 wells this year so that it can grow its overall production to between 228 Bcfe and 238 Bcfe, all while staying within the confines of its cash flow. If the company didn't secure its cash flow by hedging, it wouldn't be able to grow as fast if natural gas prices plummet this year.

source from Top Stocks To Buy For 2015:http://www.topstocksforum.com/5-best-oil-service-stocks-to-own-right-now.html