Natural Gas Stocks Looking Good for 2010 (TOT, CHK, XTO, CEO, APA)

With the news that French Oil Company, Total (NYSE: TOT), was spending $2.25 billion in order to buy a stake in the Texas Natural Gas Field, it shows that the world’s major oil companies are moving towards adding natural gas into their portfolio and cashing in on the large U.S. gas discoveries in the last decade.

In this recent transaction, Total is reported to pay Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) $800 billion as well as paying $1.45 billion in the drilling cost for the three years in the Barnett Shale.

Another sign that larger companies are taking notice is the recent announcement that Exxon Mobil would be purchasing XTO Energy Inc. (NYSE: XTO) for the amount of $41 billion. This is the largest acquisition of Exxon Mobil since the purchase of Mobil 10 years ago.

Natural Gas is a cleaner option than oil with 60% less emissions than coal. Aside from lower emissions, it is also a cheaper option with a strong supply that would be able to satisfy the need. The discovery of the large deposits in Texas in the early 2000's has led to an increase in drilling all over the country. Now, large numbers of gas deposits have been found in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Pennsylvania among others.

Natural Gas Prices rose in most exchanges. In the New York City Gate Spot Trading, Natural Gas went up $11.02/MMBtu for a 53.27% increase while Henry Hub Spot trading has Natural Gas Prices rising to $6.08/MMBtu for a 4.29% increase. Natural Gas Futures prices in the NYMEX Henry Hub Future went down 3.23% to $5.69/MMBtu.

Companies that are involved in the drilling, storing, and refining of Natural Gas include CNOOC Limited (NYSE: CEO) which gained 3.25% to $166.57 a share, Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA) gained 0.64% to $106.56 a share, Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE: SWN) went up 1.53% to $51.61 a share and Devon Energy Corporation dropped slightly by 0.48% to $76.09 a share.