It’s no secret that oil prices are surging right now. You complain about it every time you fill up your car, so why not capitalize by investing in the best oil stocks?
We watched crude prices swing above $100 per barrel during the Strait of Hormuz crisis earlier this year. They’ve since cooled off, but that just means the stocks that benefit from rising oil prices could be trading at a discount currently.
We’ve dug into the VectorVest stock forecasting software and uncovered 8 of the best opportunities in the oil sector right now. Learn more about where you should allocate your capital below, and how VectorVest brings you these types of trades on a daily basis!
Key Takeaways
- Oil stocks include supermajors, upstream producers, oilfield services, LNG exporters, downstream refiners, and fuel distribution companies.
- Exxon Mobil (XOM) is the biggest company in the space right now with a market cap of over $570 billion.
- Chevron (CVX) has the highest dividend yield at right around 4%.
- Occidental Petroleum (OXY) sold OxyChem to Berkshire Hathaway for $9.7 billion so it could invest in air capture technology.
- Every stock on our list below pays dividends.
- VectorVest tells you what to buy, when to buy it, and when to sell it so you never have to look far for your next opportunity or stress over trading execution.
Types of Stocks That Benefit From Oil Surges
Before we dive into our list of potential stocks, you should be aware of just how diverse the playing field is. Oil is a supply chain – not a single industry or sector.
Most people think about upstream producers like ConocoPhillips. Occidental is another. These types of companies actually drill for crude oil and natural gas. Their margins correlate pretty directly with oil prices, so they’re an obvious addition to your portfolio.
There are midstream operators as well, though, that move product through pipelines and processing facilities. Phillips 66 is a good example of this. Meanwhile, downstream refiners take the crude oil and transform it into the gas you actually put in your car, diesel that goes in trucks, and jet fuel for airplanes.
The point is, you have more types of oil stocks to choose from than you may have realized. But we don’t say that to overwhelm you. We’ve narrowed it down to the 8 best oil stocks to buy now.
What Are the Best Oil Stocks to Buy Right Now?
Keep in mind the oil supply chain is constantly ebbing and flowing, so what we tell you is a great opportunity today could shift by tomorrow. We’ll be updating this resource regularly, but it’s still best to do your own research before putting any money into a position.
That’s where the VectorVest stock advisory comes into play. It ranks 18,000+ stocks every day based on three proprietary metrics: relative value (RV), relative safety (RS), and relative timing (RT). You get a clear buy, sell, or hold recommendation for any given stock at any given time.
It’s one of the best resources you can have in your trading arsenal. Learn more about how it works with a free stock analysis for any equity you’ve been eyeing. In the meantime, these are the best oil stocks to buy right now.
Chevron (CVX)
This is the second-biggest US oil company by market cap at around $343 billion. It’s also one of the most dependable dividend payers in the sector with a yield of roughly 4% and decades of consecutive annual increases. It’s an excellent stock to keep in your portfolio for the long haul.
Chevron’s global production portfolio just got a massive makeover when it acquired the Hess Corporation back in mid-2025. Chevron also expanded production capacity in Kazakhstan recently.
But all sights are set on the future with Project Kilby – a 20-year agreement to supply 2.7 gigawatts of power to a Microsoft AI data center campus in West Texas. It’s rare for an oil company to sign power contracts with tech giants, but that’s just another example of AI changing everything.
CVX was up over 35% through the first few months of 2026, before it tumbled down a bit to where it sits now – $127/share. But it’s still up 10% YTD with plenty of room to go higher.
ConocoPhillips (COP)
This is the largest independent E&P (Exploration and Production) company in the world by a fairly large margin. ConocoPhillips has a market cap of $130 billion with a 3% dividend yield – another great addition to your long-term investments, with plenty of short-term upside, too!
The company expanded its footprint across the Permian, Eagle Ford, and Bakken regions through its recent Marathon Oil acquisition. Now, management is expecting to see $5 billion in asset disposition before the year is over. This will streamline the portfolio and fund shareholder returns.
As far as long-term growth goes, ConocoPhillips locked up a 20-year LNG sales agreement for Papua New Guinea Phase 2 and Rio Grande LNG Train 5. This will be a reliable source of income for decades to come. These combined moves should bring in $7 billion in incremental free cash flow by 2029, according to management.
COP is one of the best oil stocks to buy now as its chart follows a similar trend to CVX – peaked in April of 2026 before losing those gains and settling around 10% YTD. There’s no reason it can’t recover those losses sustained over the past few months.
Exxon Mobil (XOM)
Exxon Mobil is by far the biggest publicly traded oil company in the world with a whopping $570 billion market cap. The company is profitable, too – it posted $28.8 billion in earnings in 2025 while returning $37.2 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks combined.
The company formed a joint venture with QatarEnergy at Sabine Pass in Texas, and this project just achieved first production from Train 1 earlier this year. This move expanded US LNG export capacity by around 5%, so it’s no small feat. Exxon also acquired a 40% stake in the Bahia Natural Gas Liquids Pipeline for $650 million, too.
XOM has a solid dividend yield of 3% with decades of track record behind it. The stock climbed nearly 40% before oil prices cooled off in April of 2026, sending it down a bit – though not as harshly as other stocks on this list. It’s still up over 12% YTD!
SLB NV (SLB)
SLB provides the technology, data analytics, and equipment that upstream producers rely on to find and extract oil. It’s among the largest oilfield services companies in the world with a market cap of nearly $71 billion. This is a great play if you want a different type of exposure to oil.
The ChampionX acquisition was just wrapped up last year and expanded SLB’s portfolio into production optimization technology. This segment has far more predictable recurring revenue than traditional drilling services.
SLB also has an AI assistant built for upstream energy operations called Tela. We love seeing companies find their unique way to leverage AI, and this one move separates SLB from its competitors.
Management is committed to returning $4 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks this year. The dividend yield sits at 2.4% right now. Although SLB plummeted over the past few weeks, it’s still up nearly 18% YTD and could be purchased at a discount today.
World Kinect (WKC)
You might not be familiar with World Kinect. That’s about to change. This company was formerly known as World Fuel Services. That name gave you a better idea of what the company does – supplies fuel to airlines, shipping lines, and commercial fleets across 200+ countries.
Handling the logistics of getting fuel where it’s needed is a lucrative business, which is why we think this is one of the best oil stocks to buy now. World Kinect is coming out of what they’ve admitted was a “clean-up year” after taking a $614 million net loss from non-cash impairment tied to exiting underperforming business lines.
However, the operating business underneath those write-downs brought in $336 million in adjusted EBITDA and $227 million in free cash flow. The new CEO Ira Birns has narrowed the company’s focus. Birns also raised full-year EPS guidance to $2.65-$2.85 after a strong first quarter.
Don’t let that relatively low market cap of $1.6 billion fool you. The stock has the most room to rerate if the turnaround holds. WKC is only $32/share today, up 33% and counting since the start of the year.
Occidental Petroleum (OXY)
Occidental’s story over the past year has been about restructuring, kind of like World Kinect. The company sold its OxyChem chemical division to Berkshire Hathaway for $9.7 billion in cash earlier this year. This cash was then used to cut principal debt to $15 billion (down from a peak near $40 billion after the Anadarko acquisition).
Management raised the quarterly dividend 8% (to $0.26 per share). There’s a flexible buyback program in place that triggers whenever oil exceeds $75 per barrel.
There’s another unique business angle behind this company, though. It’s commissioning Stratos, the world’s largest direct air capture facility. It’s expected to remove 500,000 metric tons of CO2 per year.
The stock surged 59% through April 2026. Like most oil stocks, it cooled off quite a bit after reaching its peak – but is still up a solid 21% YTD. There’s reason to believe it could get back to its recent highs of over $60/share in the future.
Cheniere Energy (LNG)
Cheniere Energy is the largest LNG exporter in the United States. The company operates liquefaction terminals at Sabine Pass, Louisiana, and Corpus Christi, Texas.
Cheniere Energy had a great 2025 with $20 billion in revenue and $5.3 billion in net income. It picked up where it left off with an impressive Q1 2026, which prompted management to raise full-year 2026 EBITDA guidance by $500 million.
All eyes are watching the Corpus Christi Stage 3 expansion right now. Trains 1 through 4 reached substantial completion in 2025, and Train 5 just did the same earlier this year. First LNG from Train 6 is imminent, and the company says Trains 6 and 7 are both projected to come online before the end of the year.
The stock trades around $235, the highest share price on this list, with a dividend yield under 1%. That is to say, this is not an income play – even though LNG is up 19% YTD. Rather, this is a bet on LNG demand continuing to grow as natural gas displaces coal.
Phillips 66 (PSX)
Last but not least, we have Phillips 66 – the most downstream operator on this list. It refines crude oil and manufactures chemicals. But, it also oversees a midstream network that moves natural gas liquids from the Permian and Eagle Ford to Gulf Coast processing hubs and export terminals.
Phillips 66 has spent the last 18 months buying its way into a bigger midstream and refining footprint. The $2.2 billion EPIC Y-Grade deal, buying out Cenovus Energy’s 50% stake in WRB Refining for $1.4 billion, and picking up the Lindsey Oil Refinery in the UK.
So far, those acquisitions are paying off. The company brought in $207 million ($0.51/share) in Q1 2026 with a dividend of around 3.1%. PCS has been steadily climbing higher since April of 2026, whereas most stocks have taken a step back since then. It’s up 24% in that span.
Getting Started Investing in Oil Stocks
It’s not as simple as adding all 8 of these stocks to your portfolio. You should get a little more specific about the type of exposure you want, and that’ll depend on what you’re investing for.
Most income investors are going to align more closely with high-yield dividend payers such as CVX and PCS. On the other hand, a growth-focused investor will probably see more value in LNG or OXY. There are even energy ETFs out there, like XLE, if you want to keep it simple.
Dig deeper into each of these stocks before buying. Really look at the fundamentals that matter most. For example, dividend yield tells you what you will earn in income, but payout ratio explains whether or not that dividend is sustainable when stuff hits the fan.
Trailing price-to-earnings ratios tends to be a little misleading with oil stocks because commodity price swings distort year-over-year comparisons. We recommend paying more attention to forward estimates for a signal.
Is Now a Good Time to Buy Oil Stocks?
WTI crude has come down from $100 barrel (currently around $70). Things look to be easing up between the US and Iran, which could bring prices down even further. That, of course, could change at a moment’s notice. But nonetheless, the International Energy Agency is expecting global oil demand to decline quite a bit year-over-year.
Sounds bearish, we know. But that’s only the case for high-cost upstream producers. We were intentional in picking the best oil stocks that won’t go belly up when crude prices drop.
Only YOU can determine how you feel about the oil supply chain. VectorVest is here to tell you which stocks are good to trade in the meantime, though.
Find the Best Oil Stocks on Autopilot With VectorVest
VectorVest takes all the guesswork out of finding the best oil stocks and deciding when to buy and sell them. You’re given a clear buy, sell, or hold recommendation for any given stock at any given time based on a proprietary stock rating system. It has outperformed the S&P 500 index by 10x over the past 20 years and counting.
It’s a great way to build a diversified portfolio. You can also learn about the best lithium stocks, rare earth stocks, and even the best stocks for beginners with little money. VectorVest adapts to any trading strategy to help you earn higher returns with less work and stress. See how it works!
Frequently asked questions
Are oil stocks a good opportunity right now?
Yes, even though crude came off its 2026 highs, it’s still in a profitable range for all the best oil stocks on this list. Just make sure you’re investing in good companies that have already weathered storms in the past.
What oil stocks did Warren Buffett buy?
Berkshire Hathaway holds more of Occidental Petroleum (OXY) than any other investor. Buffett has also held positions in Chevron (CVX) over the years.
When is the best time to buy oil stocks?
Oil stocks ebb and flow with commodity cycles, so it’s hard to give you an idea of timing. VectorVest’s relative timing (RT) indicator gauges the direction, dynamics, and magnitude of a stock’s price movement. It calculates day over day, week over week, quarter over quarter, and year over year to help you find the right time to buy and sell any stock.
Do any of these oil stocks pay dividends?
Yes, all do – CVX has the best dividend at 4%, followed by COP and PSX.
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