Normally, August is a languid month. With the mercury hitting 100H throughout much of the oil patch—and even up in Maine!—you'd think it would be easy to ignore oil and gas prices, the stock market, the Fed, and other financial matters. But no.

"Wall Street really feels like it's playing Russian roulette with all six bullets these days," said a Raymond James note, after the Dow plunged more than 600 points in a single day in early August. After Standard & Poor's Corp. downgraded the U.S. credit rating, the S&P 500 plunged 6.7% and crude fell to an eight-month low, settling below $80 per barrel.

Energy was hit hard. Apple's market cap actually surpassed that of ExxonMobil for a time—while we all watched the frightful stock moves on our Apple iPhones.

But we have to remain high on oil and gas names. What other growth industries are there?

The fundamentals underlying crude oil prices and energy stocks (especially oil service stocks) are much more favorable than the broader markets and the global economy, Raymond James reminds us.

We agree. For starters, even given a slow-growth or no-growth scenario for the global economy, OPEC and the International Energy Agency still think oil demand will top 88 million barrels a day this year—the first time that has happened.

In the U.S., a bullish stance makes sense. Second-quarter conference calls mentioned increased capital budgets, more frac capacity, and plenty of new-build rig announcements. These portend even more oil- and gas-shale production to come. If shale development is not economic or wells are not as productive as touted, then a lot of smart people are betting a lot of money on a fool's errand. We don't think so.

Oasis Petroleum hiked its 2011 capex by about 28%, to drill more net Bakken wells with more frac stages (36 versus 28). The company also will create a new subsidiary, Oasis Well Services LLC. Brigham Exploration Co.'s production could grow 29% through the rest of the year. Whiting Petroleum raised its 2011 capex 19%.

Patterson-UTI will build 30 more rigs in 2012. Carbo Ceramics plans a new frac prop-pant manufacturing facility.

On the natural gas side, Cabot Oil & Gas' production will rise at least 40% this year. Its Marcellus output alone grew 33% in the second quarter.

Longer term, experts expect 10 billion cubic feet a year from the Marcellus shale by 2020. Three years ago, people asked: Is it real? Today they are asking: How do I get my piece of this pie?

Raymond James cites its reasons for being bullish. "Specifically, we are looking at substantial oil inventory reductions combined with rapidly diminishing OPEC excess productive capacity over the next two years; 2) Historically, when governments fire up the currency printing presses, commodities with limited supplies outperform meaningfully (think oil and gold in the 1970s); 3) As long as WTI oil prices hold above $70, returns on drilling horizontal oil wells in the U.S. should be sufficient to drive a multi-year (five-plus) upswing in oil service activity and earnings growth; and 4) Despite the bullish earnings drivers above, there are numerous oil service companies trading substantially below 10x 2012 earnings, while poised to deliver 20% earnings growth over the next three to five years."

A sea change is occurring this year, with the global pressure-pumping industry now set to surpass the longtime money leaders, the offshore drilling and offshore construction sectors. This is due to the lag in offshore activity and the great leap forward of the onshore shale plays so dependent on fracture stimulation.

This is according to Richard Spears, managing director of Tulsa-based Spears & Associates, speaking on a July conference call with analyst and managing director Mark Urness of CLSA/Credit Agricole Securities (USA) Inc.

Spears estimates the 2011 pressure pumping services market will reach $39 billion, which represents 50% growth over 2010 levels—and in 2010, we already saw 56% growth over 2009. "This is a market that's growing quite robustly and every time I look at it, I raise my estimate for the current year and for the future year," Spears said.

For 30 years, natural gas drilling drove pressure pumping capacity in North America, but now, horizontal oil wells are leading the charge. Capacity was 8 million horsepower in 2009. Today it's nearly 14 million and climbing.

"...there is no precedent in this country in our lifetimes for that kind of activity."

The Eagle Ford and Marcellus shales are two of the fastest-growing unconventional plays in the U.S., and we've got the scoop on both. Make plans to attend DUG-Eagle Ford in San Antonio, starting with a workshop October 10; and DUG-East in Pittsburgh, starting with workshops on November 15. Featured keynotes include former Defense Sec. Robert Gates at DUG-Eagle Ford, and T. Boone Pickens at DUG-East. See you there!

For more commentary from Leslie Haines, see the blog "Leslie's Notebook" at OilandGasInvestor.com .