Investec Global Energy fund managers Jonathan Waghorn and Mark Lacey have used the BP-led downturn to add to a number of stocks “unjustly punished” by the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
Waghorn and Lacey, the former heads of the highly-regarded Goldman Sachs energy research team, built a small position in Transocean, owner of the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig, at the end of last month.
The managers also added to existing positions in other stocks directly or indirectly affected by the crisis.
Waghorn and Lacey took the £219.3m fund's weighting in Anadarko, the 25% owner of the Macondo oil well, to 4.1%. They also took their position in Noble Corp, which has been affected by the US Government's drilling moratorium in the Gulf, to 5.5%.
Since the Deepwater Horizon's explosion on 20 April - the share prices for Transocean, Anadarko and Noble have fallen 45%, 36% and 20% respectively.
Despite the negativity surrounding the BP disaster, Waghorn and Lacey have recently become upbeat on energy sector valuations.
"After the recent weakness we have seen, we are now more interested in the sector than at any time over the past 12 to 15 months. It is like February 2009 all over again," Waghorn says.
"The BP disaster has obviously not been good for the whole sector and it has not been good for sentiment. But while there has been plenty of talk of the drilling moratorium lasting for two years -we simply do not believe this will be the case.
"About 100,000 people are not working because of the moratorium in the Gulf. With unemployment in the US where it is, the last thing you need is having people standing around. Especially considering 80% of the drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is in development, not exploration."
Waghorn and Lacey do not hold BP and believe investors will face a 40% dividend reduction on the oil giant's last payout when it finally reinstates distributions.
"We do have some sympathy for BP. The sad fact is, it seems the market thinks Tony Hayward will not be able to get through this, even though there is not much more he could have done through the whole crisis," Waghorn adds. "Overall, we believe BP has done a good job in a tough situation."
