A couple of major oil and gas companies are set to report their earnings Wednesday: Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) and Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK).

Occidental will report its first-quarter financial results Wednesday before the markets open. Thomson Reuters has consensus estimates of $0.04 in earnings per share (EPS) on $3.30 billion in revenue. The first quarter from the previous year had $1.75 in EPS on $6.09 billion in revenue.

Futures traders have been increasing their long positions for several weeks now, anticipating price increases. What is unknown is how quickly producers can turn idle wells into flowing moneymakers. Once those wells begin flowing, the price of crude may drop again as producers that have waited for prices to rise all jump back in at the same time. Even the threat of that may keep prices down.

Furthermore, at an industry conference in Houston last week, CEO Stephen Chazen said that readily available capital and demand from private equity firms for investment opportunities could extend the low-price period.

Tuesday afternoon, Occidental shares were trading down 1.4% at $78.92, in a 52-week trading range of $71.70 to $101.38. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $85.22.

Chesapeake is scheduled to release its first-quarter earnings report Tuesday before the markets open. This Carl Icahn favorite has consensus estimates of $0.04 in EPS on $3.68 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, it posted EPS of $0.59 on $5.05 billion in revenue.

Goldman Sachs has Chesapeake as one of its top energy picks. The firm sees upside of close to 55% here. Goldman raised Chesapeake up to Buy from Neutral back on January 12, with a target price of $23 at the time — when shares were at a dividend-adjusted share price of $18.28 the day prior to the call.

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Chesapeake has had a very turbulent past two years, but investors in the natural gas giant will be happy to know that a director of the company made a gigantic buy early in April. This was not just any director either. Chairman Archie Dunham bought a block of a million shares at a price of $13.98. This could signal a renewed optimism with prices back on the rise.

Shares of Chesapeake were down 0.9% Tuesday at $16.24. The consensus analyst price target is $16.92, and the 52-week trading range is $13.38 to $29.92.

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