It's a difficult call, but I'm Reiterating my Buy rating for Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES), first recommended on April 22, 2009 at a price of $50.41.

Hess' shares have underperformed over the past half-year, but I'm sticking with the play, for now, pending results over the next two quarters.

An oil play? In this market? You may ask, "How so?"

True, the price of oil collapsed 2008, due to the departure of many leveraged investors after the financial crisis started, and due to the U.S. and global recessions. Hence, given oil's likely sluggish 2009 path, you have to investigate thoroughly (due diligence) and invest carefully when you're considering an oil play.

That said, know this: oil 'taint' going to remain near $35-45 per barrel forever. When global GDP growth resumes (it's flat-lining now, or worse), oil will move back toward $60, and with the above in mind, Suncor Energy (NYSE: SU) is worth a review.

ConocoPhillips said it now expects Q4 production to exceed Q3 production by 60,000 barrels of equivalent oil, to about 1.86 million barrels of equivalent oil, the company announced Thursday in a statement.

Conoco (NYSE: COP) also said it expects both Q4 crude oil and U.S. natural gas prices to be higher on a sequential basis. Conoco's shares gained 82 cents to $88.71 on the news in Thursday afternoon trading.

The company said it also expects an after-tax negative impact of about $250 million for Alaska's new production tax. About $100 million of that amount is for the 2006 and 2007 periods. Conoco said it also expects a $350 million revenue gain stemming from Canada's tax-rate reduction act and the release of specific escrow funds.

ConocoPhillips also expects domestic refining and marketing margins to decrease slightly in Q4, offset by a higher, average, worldwide crude oil refining capacity utilization rate.

Stock Analysis: First recommended in this space in October 2007 at about $85, ConocoPhillips is a moderate-risk stock not suitable for low-risk investors. Investors with an investment horizon of at least one year who need an integrated oil stock / energy stock should benefit from COP's shares. Sell / Stop Loss if you were to purchase shares in this company: $58.

DISCLOSURE: Joseph Lazzaro has no positions in stocks. In addition to private real estate holdings, he owns corporate and municipal bonds, and cash certificates of deposit.

This morning, Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) became the latest of the big oil companies to report disappointing earnings. Shares of the oil company have slid a little over 1% in premarket trading following its third quarter earnings report this morning.

The main reason for Chevron's weak earnings can be attributed to weak refining margins during the quarter. This is not the first time we have heard this story. Yesterday, the world's largest oil company, Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), also posted weak earnings as a result of tighter refining margins, and last week ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) also fell victim to refining weakness.

For Chevron, the third quarter saw a 26% decline in net income from the same period last year. On a per share basis, the company reported earnings of $1.94, while analysts had been expecting to see the oil giant post earnings of $2.07 per share for its third quarter.

The downstream portion of the company's business had the most dramatic declines, with earnings falling dramatically to $377 million from $1.44 billion.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

The new CEO of BP (NYSE: BP), one of the world's largest oil companies, says that its next quarter will be "dreadful," according to The Financial Times. How can that be with oil prices at record highs? The shares of rival Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) trade at almost $92, close to an all-time high.

The answer seems to be that BP is in the wrong segments of the oil and gas business at the wrong time, and poor management has crippled the company. Its shares are up 10% this year, less than the S&P 500 and virtually all of its competitors.

BP is heavily into the refining and natural gas businesses where margins have not been as good as they are in oil exploration. The company's North Sea pipeline has been damaged.

BP also suffers from missteps in its recent past. Its Alaska pipeline has had leak problems, and the explosion of one of its refineries in Texas killed several workers.

New management, however, also points the finger at an organization that has been set up with too much complexity, making operating the huge company more difficult. The plan is to cut-back levels of staff and consolidate the company into fewer divisions.

It is a classic case of blaming the former management when things go badly.

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

Constantly on the lookout for those things that subtly show potential, my keen eye has spied a possible giant upcoming in the kingdom of the minerals. Enter the humble player tellurium, a mineral byproduct of copper production. This relatively unknown mineral currently is not mined in any commercial sense. It's primarily derived through a recovery process applied to the sludge from copper refining. What is the interest in tellurium and why should you care about it? Well, here's what the State Geologist of Arizona has revealed to me.

According to Jack Lifton at Resource Investor, this fall Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Samsung "will introduce flash memory replacements ... that can be used, erased, and used again indefinitely, but, rather than being crystalline silicon technology based, are made from tellurium based glasses composed of germanium, antimony, and tellurium." What could this possibly mean to a sharp-minded investor? It means that there quite possibly resides an untapped multi-mega fortune in copper refining sludge. In 2000, tellurium marketed for just under $4.00 a pound. Last year, the mineral had reached $96 and is currently around $100 a pound.

Additionally, First Solar Inc., (NASDAQ: FSLR) of Phoenix, which went public last fall, is using cadmium tellurium in the production of photovoltaic cells. Its public statement regarding the use of the material is as follows: "Cadmium tellurium ... has the potential to deliver competitive conversion efficiencies with approximately 1% of the semiconductor material used by traditional crystalline silicon solar modules." That's one percent of the current weight and one percent of the current volume. Imagine the solar conversion capacity currently available reduced in size by 10%. Yeah baby, now that's potential!

Some stick-in-the-mud people may still want to turn their noses up at the realities of solar conversion and its future. That's fine with me. I'll just watch someone else get rich while I'm sitting in the sunshine.