Now is the time to start looking at Big-Oil from an investment perspective -- our strategy is to get into a profit-position now before the price of oil begins to firm up. I am announcing immediate buy-signals on BP PLC (BP NYSE) and Schlumberger (SLB NYSE) at current prices. Both of these industry dominators are trading at huge discounts to year-ago levels – and I am very confident both stocks will trade much higher in the second half of 2009.

Oil-services giant Schlumberger (SLB) should be bought now at the $38 per share level -- and BP PLC (BP), one of the world’s largest and most diversified producers, is an immediate buy at the $40 per share level. You can expect both of these stocks to make steady upward moves once a clear bottom is established in the oil-price.

We’re already beginning to see signs of an improved market for petroleum products in the United States: The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) just released a report showing an increase in weekly gasoline demand of 1.7 percent for the week ended 20 February, compared with the same period last year, to an average of 9 million barrels per day. And, OPEC’s leaders have stated they would like oil prices to rise to $70 a barrel and that another production cut is likely when they meet on 15 March in Vienna, Austria. The U.S. government also reports that crude inventories rose by just 700,000 barrels last week, or 0.2 percent, to 351.3 million barrels, which is far below analyst expectations of a 2.25 million barrel increase.

Even with all this information coming in, there remains a major glut of oil on the market – and that is why oil prices remain weak. Yet, I have no doubt that we will work through this surplus through global production cuts (and eventually increased demand via global economic recovery), which should drive oil-prices moderately higher over the next few business quarters. Schlumberger and BP are my immediate picks for strong shareholder profits in 2009 and beyond.