Investors looking to strike it rich with a play in oil have many avenues to explore, including the exploration sector itself, where they’ll find the likes of Gulf Island Fabrication Inc. (Nasdaq:GIFI).

Based in Houma, La., Gulf Island Fabrication is a leading builder of offshore drilling and production platforms, along with other structures needed to harvest oil and natural gas from deep under the sea.

Operating under four subsidiaries — Gulf Island LLC, Gulf Marine Fabricators, Dolphin Services LLC and Southport LLC — the company employs about 1,900, including 1,100 at its Louisiana facilities. Four of Gulf Island’s six fabrication yards are along the Houma Navigation Channel, about 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The others are near Corpus Christi, Texas.

The company says demand for its goods and services is coming from operations in the Gulf, North and West Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, offshore Canada and the North Sea. In 2007, deepwater projects accounted for 78% of revenue, and foreign destinations generated 24% of revenue.

Four analysts who follow Gulf Island Fabrication have a cautiously positive opinion, with three rating the stock a “hold” and another calling it a “strong buy,” according to Thomson Reuters. The 12-month median price target for Gulf Island is $39.50 — a level that the stock blasted through since its April 23 first-quarter earnings release. Shares closed Thursday at $43.46.

Gulf Island Fabrication posted blowout numbers for the three months ended March 31. Revenue climbed to $123.7 million, from $109.4 million a year earlier. Net income tripled to $13.4 million, compared with $4.4 million the year before, while earnings per share rose to $0.94, from $0.31. And the company pays quarterly dividends, now $0.10 a share.

The stock has seen a rapid rise since bottoming at a 52-week low of $24.88 on Feb. 1. Shares of Gulf Island Fabrication, which teased the $40 level in late 2006 and again last fall, have solidly crossed that threshold, hitting an all-time high of . . .

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