For long-term investors, buying stock in Noble Energy (NBL) is a great investment move. Looking at the short term, I expect Noble Energy stock to drop in price, so an investor looking for a short-term gain should wait until the stock price bottoms out. Noble Energy has seen its net income trend upwards each of the past three years, going from -$131 million to $453 million in that time frame. I believe this is a great sign for potential investors. Noble Energy’s stock price is near $84, which is pretty much right in the middle of its 52-week range. Given the trend in Noble Energy’s net income, and the company’s huge success in expanding its natural gas production, I expect the company to gain value and increase stock price.

Noble Energy is one of the foremost companies in exploration and production within the integrated oil and gas sector. Noble holds licensing rights to very profitable blocks of the Mediterranean region. The company has recently discovered natural gas reserves that will quickly increase Noble’s natural gas production in the near future.

Noble recently announced the discovery of a 991 billion cubic meter natural gas reservoir off the coast of Greek Cyprus and Israel. This amount of natural gas exceeds the needs of both Greek Cyprus and Israel combined, which will allow for Noble to export natural gas, possibly as much as 50% of the reservoir, to surrounding countries. This ramped up production of natural gas should lead to increased revenues for Noble, as the price of natural gas is expected to rise from now through 2014.To continue reading, click here.