Oil and related ETFs have experienced huge gains off its last year’s low, and energy companies have pocketed most of the change. However, the oil industry is expanding its options into other energy fields as it anticipates the eventual depletion of oil reserves.

Big western oil companies are trying to sustain reserves by expanding through acquisitions and investment, according to The Economist. For instance, Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) estimated that exploration and capital spending hit $27.1 billion in 2009, or 4% higher than in 2008. The company also expects to continue spending around $25 billion to $30 billion a year over the next five years for the same purpose.

Below we highlight our trading range charts for ten major commodities. For each chart, the green shading represents between two standard deviations above and below the commodity's 50-day moving average. Moves above or below the green zone are considered overbought or oversold.

As you'll see, prices have come down across the board in recent days. Gold, silver, copper, corn, wheat, and coffee are all trading at extreme oversold territory. For the metals, many are trading at their most oversold levels in at least a year. Long-term uptrends have now been broken for gold, silver, copper, and coffee. Energy has held up relatively well recently, with oil and natural gas both trading right in the middle of their trading ranges. Orange juice is the only commodity that really hasn't struggled a bit.

By Brad Zigler

Forecasting changes in weekly oil inventories can be a dicey business. Sometimes the estimates made by the industry-supported American Petroleum Institute and sell-side analysts are widely disparate; sometimes they coincide. And sometimes, like this week, they can be on either side of the numbers posted by the U.S. Energy Department.