JJC:    With oil trading erratically today... at one point, down $3 bucks, and then rallying... which some view as a sign of a top in the petrol stocks... something we here at Mad Money disagree with vehemently...  you now have a great opportunity to get into some of the best plays on high oil.  And, believe me, it will stay high, even with days when it drops - like today - before it rallies.

What, pray tell, is the best way to play high oil?...  I mean, sky-high oil?... ... not just regular, but sky-high?...

Well, you know what we've been doing all week... It's the wildcatters... which is why this is "Wildcat Week" on Mad Money... We're talking about companies that drill for oil and gas in new and unexplored places... including wacky ones like Pennsylvania and Illinois... I mean, places where I didn't think there was any oil.

Today's wildcatter is Range Resources Corp. (RRC)...

This company is believed to be the largest player in the Marcellus Shale... It's definitely the oldest, when it comes to milking these giant Appalachian fields... including the birthplace of where oil was first found in this country... the Keystone State... and the stock made a big move earlier in the year, when the spotlight was entirely on this... okay... entirely on the Marcellus Shale alone...

In fact, at one point, at the end of March, it was the biggest percentage gainer in the whole S&P 500... everything, including the ag stocks...

But, since then, the spotlight's faded, except on Mad Money, and the Street's getting worked up on other plays, like the Bakken Shale and, most recently, the Haynesville Shale... They're attracting the hot money right now.

RRC has pulled back from its high of $76.81, less than a month ago... It's just $64 right now, because of all that attention shifted away from this (Marcellus Shale)...

We don't care, as long as it stays on natural gas, because the spotlight on the fuel of the year in Cramerica has made us a lot of money. We also don't care, because 99% of America doesn't know what shale is, let alone all of these cool shales that will help the dream of energy independence... or, at least, higher stock prices... come true.

But Marcellus Shale is still big... and so is RRC...

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With some of the spotlight off of Marcellus Shale, RRC now has a chance to catch up to the newer, hotter wildcatters that we've been featuring...

It doesn't matter which shale play the Street is salivating over at the moment... What matters is who can find oil and gas, and that's a contest that maybe you should put your money on RRC to win...

2.2 trillion cubic feet of reserves, with another potential 16-21 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Remember, 2008 is the year of natural gas. This is throughout all its properties... 8 to 10 times more than its proven reserves...

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RRC isn't just in Marcellus. It's a big player with exposure all over the place. The Huron Shale... there's another one... This one's in Kentucky, where it could have 0.8 to 1.5 trillion cubic feet... Our old friend, Barnett Shale... it's got 1.4 trillion cubic feet. How about this one?... The Woodford Shale in Oklahoma, with 300 billion cubic feet, plus 400 billion cubic feet in the old-fashioned Permian Basin, which we always knew about... and 200 billion cubic feet in Floyd Shale in Alabama...

Are you getting the picture?... Are any of the politicians getting the picture?... We actually have a lot of natural gas in the country but, no... they're too busy trying to stuff us with ethanol.

RRC has its hand in so many different shales... we call that diversification on this show, and we like it... that I think it's more likely to be successful than a wildcatter with just one or two different prospects, even though we have profiled those this week.

RRC is also a low-cost operator, and this is why you need to focus... because, in the show, the wildcats, the props... everything... is about profits.

It's finding costs are about $1.89 per million cubic feet of natural gas. The industry average is $3.00. We love it when wildcatters can find oil and gas on the cheap, because that just leaves more profits at the end of the day. So let's just do, not the math, but the arithmetic...

You find something at $1.89... you sell it at $12 bucks...

Do you have any companies in your portfolio with that kind of profit margin?... I don't think so.
 

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What else do I like?...

The company has raised its production growth guidance to 19% for the year, from 15%... That's like, when you're on the conference call, saying, listen, we've been saying it's X... It's going to be much better...

It plans double its number of rigs in 2009 from three to six... The Street likes growth wherever it can find it, whether it be new or old tech, or oil and gas. That's what attracts new buyers.

Now get this... RRC did a secondary offering, selling $267 million in stock to fund its land acquisiton in the Marcellus Shale... The offering price was $66.38. Do you know that's higher than RRC is now, which closed at $64 (today)...

At these levels, I've got to tell you, I think this stock is an absolute steal.

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