National Oilwell Varco (NYSE:NOV) is one of the best in the industry at managing its business throughout the cycle.
It also helps that, unlike so many other companies in this business, National Oilwell Varco's management team has kept a pretty conservative balance sheet. With $1.6 billion in cash still on the books and total debt load of $3.2 billion -- 15% of total capital for the company -- there is plenty of cushion to help get it through the tough times. It's things like this that have allowed the company to be around for more than a century.
If you want to put your investment dollars in the good hands of an oil and gas company, you'll be hard-pressed to find one better than National Oilwell Varco.