Industry insiders know them like the back of their hands.

The Bakken, the Eagle Ford and the Marcellus. All together, the huge shale oil and gas fields, spread from western New York to Montana to Texas, hold approximately 20 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

That, according to the Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs, will make the U.S. the world’s largest producer of crude oil, with more than 10 million barrels of oil produced per day estimated by 2017.

All thanks to the “shale oil revolution,” as Goldman puts it.

The insiders know this, too. It’s one reason why ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance recently said, “North America could become self-sufficient in oil as well as gas by 2025.”

With all of the talk about shale, what stocks are the money mavens backing these days?

Oil and Gas Investor asked around, and came up with some timely picks from money managers, analysts and industry insiders.

First up, Brian Michaud, research analyst, and Tyler Kocon, portfolio manager, at Split Rock Private Trading and Wealth Management. Both specialize in the Bakken and in U.S. energy shale investments.

“The unconventional oil and natural gas energy landscape has evolved considerably over the past several years,” Michaud and Kocon say in written comments to OGI. “New technologies and methods of extraction have changed the face of the industry and allowed companies to tap into previously unreachable oil and natural gas reserves.”

“These new techniques have pushed the needle on domestic drilling and resulted in a massive influx of newly spud wells. These new wells can be stimulated with methods like hydraulic fracturing in order to increase the ultimate recovery of each well. As these wells are subjected to fracing, a complex mixture of ingredients is used to improve the fracing process and further improve the recoverability of the well. Understanding what actually composes the fracing fluid yields some interesting and promising investment opportunities.”

Split Rock is big on proppant, a part of fracing fluid composed typically of sand. According to the investment firm, the sand is used to fill in the gaps or fractures created during the process and hold these fissures open to allow the oil or natural gas to flow more freely out of the reserve. By some measurements, proppant or fracing sand can account for upwards of 40% of the entire fracking cost. A typical well can easily use 6 million tons of sand to complete the fracing process.

In addition, the fracing sand that companies prefer to use can be found amid vast sand deposits located across the greater Midwest of the United States. As fracing continues to expand, Split Rock says, there will be increased demand for the sand needed in the fracking process.

That spells opportunity, Kocon says, especially for one company.

“U.S. Silica is one example of a company that provides fracing companies with precious silica sand for their fracing operations,” he says. “This company has some significant stakes in locations across the Midwest that allows them to harvest great amounts of silica sand. Additionally, these locations are positioned in attractive proximity to hot spots of unconventional drilling activity. SLCA maintains sand mining operations that allow them to contribute to the Permian Basin, Eagle Ford Shale, Bakken and Williston Basin, and even the Marcellus and Utica shale fields.

“These operations are also well integrated with railways and other transport routes allowing SLCA to easily move their product to the end-users that desire it most,” he adds. “U.S. Silica represents one of very few ‘pure plays’ in this market, and should be prepared for some large scale expansion in the near future based on their strong fundamental financial position and attractive P/E ratio.”

Kocon says Split Rock has also integrated Hi-Crush Partners LP. (HCLP) into its Bakken and U.S. Energy Shale separately managed account.

“HCLP is a recent addition mainly because it was only recently available to public investors,” he explains. “This company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, August 16th. HCLP represents another play on the small fracking sand market. Their primary business is similar to U.S. Silica. Both companies mine for and supply sand to hydraulic fracturing companies. The major differences between these two companies are their investment metrics. HCLP offers a sizeable dividend due to its organization as a limited partnership, and provides some downside protection to a riskier IPO.”

John Graves, an industry insider who wrote the book Fracking: the People, the Process, the Community, says he looks for shale plays that” offer good, consistent dividends, low debt and strong cash flow.”

In the upstream sector, he says that two companies fit that bill – Vanguard Natural Resources (NYSE: VRN), an upstream MLP, and Linn Energy, and a national gas LLC. In the midstream sector, he likes Atlas Energy and Panamerican Pipelines, which is already trading high at $87.

Shale oil and gas stocks are white hot right now. But a closer look at the selections posted above could be well worth the effort for thoroughly inclined energy investor.