The energy industry may be the best place to be these days, if you are a new company searching for capital to get started, according to panelists at Oil and Gas Investor’s Energy Capital Forum held recently in Houston.

“There is a constant flow of opportunities to invest in oil and gas exploration and development plays,” said Jim Wicklund, manager of Carlson Capital LLC’s roughly $1-billion Energy Value Fund. “There are no shortages of opportunities.”

Still, he said, those opportunities can sometimes take strange shapes. He recently saw a Haynesville shale lease on sale on an Internet site for $15,000. Despite quirky developments such as that, “the long-term outlook is good” for finding opportunities, Wicklund said.

The market for E&P companies is very large, he added. John S. Herold Inc. lists 6,157 private E&P companies in the U.S. and Canada “and that doesn’t even count the large number of like companies found in Europe and South America.”

Just how hot the market is can be judged, he said, by looking at the number of transactions in the $5-million to $20-million range. Since 2005, there have been 960 and most E&P stock prices have doubled this year.

Driving this engine now is a positive outlook for both oil and gas by virtually all investors. Futures markets mirror that belief and returns are very strong even in a lower-price commodity range.

The search for capital can take many different routes, said John Schaeffer, managing director of diversified energy with GE Energy Financial Services. That route can include bank debt or private equity.

GE’s investment guidelines include making sure they have the right general partner, the proved reserves are in the “shallower end of the risk pool,” no “cap” on capital spending and a “heads up, side-by-side investment going in.” It’s a strategy that works, he said.

Since 1981, GE has deployed $3 billion in partnership equity that includes 8,200 wells and a production rate of 21,350 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The company’s gas portfolio includes $1.5 billion of reserve-based equity, 46% oil.

One method of financing that is getting attention is the special purpose acquisition company or SPAC.

“The SPAC offers a viable alternative to the more traditional initial public offering,” said Ronald D. Ormand, chief executive of Tremisis Energy Acquisition Corp. A SPAC is an investment vehicle that allows public investors to put their money in areas sought by private-equity firms. SPACs are shell or blank-check companies that have no operations but go public with the intention of merging with or acquiring a company with the proceeds of the SPAC’s IPO.

In 2005, SPACs accounted for $2.1 billion in deals, $3.2 billion in 2006 and $11 billion in 2007. “A SPAC provides near-time capital to companies,” Ormand said.

Another source of capital is angel investors or angel funding, said James C. Row, chief financial officer for Extex Operating Co. Inc., Houston. These investments, Row says, are characterized by high levels of risk and a potentially large return on the investment. But deal terms must be well thought out and strict, he added, or the investor may try to run the company.

Wicklund said, “Trying to raise money in any business can be difficult. But the energy industry is the best place to do it right now.”

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