The big kicker here is the potential for oil and gas in Equatorial Guinea. This will give Hess potential significant upside if they have additional discoveries there.

Bigness matters in the oil business. Companies want to get bigger and stronger. With Triton, Hess moves up another peg so they now have more entrée into a variety of areas.

The current valuation largely reflects the company's strong fundamental outlook.

It's about time. This was supposed to be a quick and easily executed merger. In other industries, these mergers do take years, but not in the oil industry.

The market has been somewhat aware of oil and the dollar/yen as potential risks for Japanese shares.

There is a lot of potential for China to import more crude oil from Russia.