For those looking for bullish indicators in the energy sector, BP BPC (NYSE: BP) just announced plans to increase oil production by 900,000 barrels a day by 2020.

BP PLC is the second largest oil company, Big Oil in every way with operations around the world.

Like so many others in the oil and natural gas industry, BP PLC has been suffering in recent market action.  BP PLC is off for the last month, quarter, six months, and year of market action.  For 2014, BP PLC is down by nearly 16 percent (chart below).  BP PLC has still not fully recovered from the blast at the Deep Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010.

That is what makes the recent announcement such a positive development BP PLC and the entire sector; as it represents a much more assertive posture based on a bright future.

While the recent news is good, it is not going to be a rapid recovery for BP PLC.  It will not be smoother either.  The stock price of BP PLC is very volatile with a beta of 1.94.  That means that the share price moves up and down nearly twice as much as the stock market as a whole.  Other Big oil stocks do not fluctuate as much.  By contrast, ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) has a beta 0.90. The beta for Chevron (NYSE: CVX) is 1.15.

For savvy investors that presents an opportunity to buy at a discount when the price dips for BP PLC.

Long term investors will then prosper when the stock price rises again.  The dividend yield of 6.16 percent pays income investors to wait.  When the stock price falls, the dividend yield becomes even higher.  BP obviously has big plans for the future.  Long term investors should also consider the same for the Big Oil stock, especially when the share price dips.