As noted earlier, if you're looking for a sleep-well-at-night energy play, skip Canada-based oil sands company Suncor Energy (SU).

Suncor, which I first wrote about on February 5, 2009 at a price of $18.35, has chopped and bounced its way up to the $40-level, primarily largely on oil's sustained, higher price -- necessary to make higher-cost oil-sands extraction profitable.

But to say the rise has had its fits-and-starts would be an understatement: $4 weekly gains are followed $3 losses.

Further, if you're in/at near $18.35, now may be a good time to consider taking some profits with SU.

In April, the call was that Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE: CBI) was undervalued at $7.31. If you bought CBI in April, you're up 178%. Not bad.

Moreover, it goes without saying that I'm reiterating my Buy rating for CBI, first recommended on April 6, 2009.

I'm Reiterating my Buy rating for Suncor Enegy (NYSE: SU) first recommended on February 25, 2009 at a price of $18.35.

Suncor's oil sands production increased 12% in Q1 or by 27,800 barrels per day, roughly in-line with expectations. Moreover, oil sands is the driver here, with the focus being Canada's Athabasca oil sands region: oil sands require a larger investment and hence a higher price, but the substantial sands resources of Canada will play a larger role in energy as the world's older, conventional oil fields continue to decline.

China National Petroleum Corp, parent of PetroChina Comapny, Ltd. (NYSE: PTR) has gotten rights from the Canadian province of Alberta to drill for oil. But the company plans to do it the hard way.

One of the hopes for replacing dependence on current oil reserves is to drill into tar sands. The ground contains a substance that can be converted to oil, but the process of separating out the material that can be refined is very costly. Then again, so are oil prices. As the price for crude sits near $70 a barrel and China looks to the need for oil and gas to keep its economy moving, tar sands drilling may actually make economic sense.

According to Wikipedia: "Oil sands may represent as much as 2/3 of the world's total petroleum resource." If oil demand continues to rise, tapping this resource may become critical.

Right now, China has no way to get much more than its share of the world's oil production. The economies of Europe, Japan, and the U.S. need the fuel just as much as the big Asian country. But if China is willing to make the investment, it could start to change the game. The communist government does not have the public company P&L issues that big oil companies do. It can put down huge sums of money if it thinks tar sands could solve its problem in the decades ahead.

And that would give China an edge.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.