Canadian Oil Sands

It is generally a good idea to have a macro-theory or theme behind all your specific investments. At least that is how it seems many of the great investors have made their money, e.g. Buffett in Insurance. When you are riding a strong secular business/industry/economic trend, it is simply a matter of finding the right companies in the strong sector and holding on.

That brings me to the Canadian Oil Sands, one of the few long-term investment themes to have come along in quite some time. If you are not familiar with the Canadian Oil Sands, I suggest you read this article from the Resource Investor. Click Here to read the article.

Oil Sands investing is not new and the stocks involved have already been hyped up plenty. But what is interesting is that the stocks are still not expensive, assuming stable oil prices, and they have corrected somewhat over the past couple of months.

So what prompted me to write about this today? Well, I noticed that Mr. Seymour Schulich, one of Canada´s most famous investors, recently bought more shares in BlackRock Ventures Inc (BVI.TO and on the Pink Sheets BRVTF.PK). If you are not familar with Schulich, you may want to Google him or Click here to read an interesting article about him. As you will see, Schulich is very bullish on the Canadian Oil industry and his recent buy of BVI is a clear indication that other investors can feel safe putting their money to work in Canadian Oil companies.

What to buy? I´ve been in SU from quite some time and it is still the #1 play for exposure to the Oil Sands. GHM also benefits from Oil Sands development, since their equipment is needed to refine the oil there. Also, you may want to pick up some BVI, which I did today. While not a pure play  on the Oil Sands,  Schulich´s involvement is enough for me. There are many other stocks to choose from to play the Oil Sands. The article referenced above gives a good summary of all the players, and a diversified portfolio of the names mentioned should be quite profitable over the next 3 to 5 years.