The following video is from Thursday's Digging for Value, in which host Alison Southwick and Motley Fool energy analysts, Taylor Muckerman and Joel South, get to the heart of the biggest stories in energy investing today.

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As part of our "Ask A Fool" submissions, energy analyst Taylor Muckerman provides his opinion on investing in emerging, domestic oil and natural gas companies. Investing in this area can be risky, but he offers up several key areas for investors to focus. One of these critical areas is competent and experienced leadership. In the following video, he discusses several companies that have laid the blueprint for succeeding as an emerging oil and natural gas company.