With crude oil prices hovering around $90/barrel, exploration and production companies are expected to increase their spending in 2011 by about 11%, for a total of about $490 billion. Oil field services companies can’t wait for the new year to start.  Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB), Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL), National Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE: NOV), Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI), and Weatherford International Ltd. (N
YSE: WFT) are leading candidates to benefit from the growth in exploration. A survey by Barclays Capital indicated that the chief areas of interest will be emerging markets in Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and Southeast Asia.

To say Barclays likes the oil field services sector is an understatement: “Given our strong growth expectations for the oil service and drilling industry relative to the global economy over the next two to three years, we believe the oil service stocks should command a considerable premium to the market.” That pretty well sums it up.

E&P activity in the US is expected to concentrate on conventional oil plays and the liquids-rich shale gas plays. With natural gas prices stuck at around $4/thousand cubic feet, producers are chasing the liquids which command a high enough price to pay for all the drilling. The liquids-rich gas plays in the US are the Eagle Ford shale in south Texas and the Bakken play in North Dakota and Montana.

Another wild-card in the services business is the acquisition of Wellstream Holdings PLC by General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE). GE has long supplied equipment to the oil field services companies, but this is its first go at competing with them. How serious GE is about competing in this sector could come into focus if or when it makes a bid to acquire another company. But even GE is unlikely to buy any of the five companies we’re looking at here.

Here’s a short table showing the tickers, the current price, the mean target price from Thomson Reuters, the implied upside to that target, and the 52-week trading range. We’ll have some comments on these companies following the chart.