investing in oil stocks

The Bakken oil shale boom is the opportunity of a lifetime.

With activity ramping up rapidly - production has soared from 100,000 barrels a day in 2005 to 494,000 barrels a day in February - the Bakken oil shale boom could turn out to be just as big, if not bigger than the California gold rush 1849.

Last week we told you about how the Bakken oil shale boom has affected Williston, ND. The town has an absurdly low unemployment rate of 0.8%, and the average pay for the oil company jobs is about $90,000.

One way to take advantage of this boom yourself would be to move to North Dakota.

But with dozens of companies flocking to the region, a much easier way to get in on the boom is to simply invest in some Bakken oil shale stocks.

The allure of big profits has attracted dozens of companies to the Bakken oil shale formation. The list ranges from industry giants like Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) to pipeline companies like Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB).

With oil prices expected to keep rising, and the production in the Bakken not expected to peak until 2020, it will be hard not to make money in Bakken oil shale stocks.

"Bakken is almost twice as big as the oil reserve in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska," Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR) - one of the major players in the Bakken oil shale boom -- told The Wall Street Journal last October. "We expect our reserves and production to triple over the next five years."

Still, some Bakken oil shale stocks will benefit more than others.

For example, the really big companies like Exxon, with large global operations, will see less of a boost than companies with operations concentrated in the Bakken and other North American shale deposits.

Money Morning has taken a look at these Bakken oil shale stocks and found five companies positioned to benefit most from this historic find's tremendous potential.