Oily Technology

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the oil industry hard. It’s going to take a long time for oil to recover, and some think it may never fully bounce back. Yet investors can still profit. Oil and natural gas remain the fuels that power much of global transportation, feeding manufacturing and electricity delivery. Renewables are becoming more important and will eventually displace hydrocarbons, but that’s likely to take decades. In the meantime, consider Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB). Core Laboratories is a major oilfield services provider, but it’s not the typical pick-and-shovel contractor with expensive equipment to maintain even when nobody’s hiring. It uses proprietary technology to analyze oil and gas wells to help producers maximize every dollar they spend developing those resources. That business model can help it ride out even this brutal downturn, and the services it provides are critically important to producers when they start drilling again. With shares having fallen more than 80% over the past three years, Core Laboratories seems very undervalued. It aims to pay out a large portion of its free cash in dividends during healthy parts of the market cycle. That dividend was recently dropped to a penny per quarter, but when business picks up, investors can likely count on a nice dividend stream from the company. (The Motley Fool has recommended Core Laboratories.)