Average oil prices are at their lowest since 2004, but this is by far the biggest year for equity issuance by U.S. E&P companies .
Early in 2016, as oil crashed below $30 a barrel and the E&P industry stared into the abyss, there was a flurry of equity issues to help shore up creaking balance sheets.
Almost 40 percent of this year’s stock sales happened in that fraught first quarter which was also the best time to buy new E&P stock.
The rally in oil prices since then has lifted the entire sector, and some of those discount sales have notched up huge gains.
In general, though, if you bought the stock sold during that fraught first quarter, you have notched the biggest gains as the sector has since rallied along with oil prices.
But with oil prices mostly moving sideways since June, buyers of most of the latest issues could be waiting a while for big payoffs of their own
