Thanks, copie for sharing your hands-on experience on the oil exploration side. My exposure to that side of oil companies is zero, but thru being an energy analyst/ economist, I have gained some diffuse understanding of the issues.

I just came across an article that lumped many of our favorite themes as "G-ICE" or Global Infrastructure, Commodities and Energy. I thought it was a neat name for the diverse investment ideas we have been discussing on this forum for about a year. May be these guys picked DI's brain and came up with these ideas! It is interesting to see that the managers describe this as "Global growth" with a deep value bias because of the typical low P/Es (and high growth rates) found in these industries. A few snippet below :

• We have coined a term called G Ice. It stands for global infrastructure, commodity and energy. It captures many different industries, including construction, machinery, energy and even technology.
• Many people today still don't realize that the growth companies of this decade are global infrastructure, commodity and energy companies and not necessarily firms making deodorant, soda, diapers or drugs. We're not buying yesterday's winners that are now trading for 20 times earnings. Coca-Cola is a great company but it's a 20-P/E stock that has annual earnings growth of 10%. I want to buy the reverse, a 10 P/E stock growing at 20%. For the past 20 years, people thought the only areas of secular growth were consumer products, health care and technology. They treated economically sensitive companies as deep cyclicals and didn't value them properly.

The last sentence in the previous bullet, is at the core of why they have low P/Es. The investment world's analysts (including M*) still value these as cyclicals, not as companies that will grow earnings in the coming decade. Well, the Generals are always fighting the last war! I thought it was an interesting name for our "Themes" ..... Anil