UPDATE 1-Rodman starts 7 US exploration & production cos

(Adds details)

Oct 28 (Reuters) - Rodman & Renshaw started coverage of seven U.S. oil and gas exploration and production companies and said it expects the sector to outperform the market over the next 12 months to 24 months.

Analyst Jeffrey Hayden said, while commodity prices could sink further in the near term, long-term commodity price outlook was "not that bad."

"Longer-term, we are comfortable that commodity prices will need to remain in the $75-$80 per barrel range for oil and $7.50-$8.00 per thousand cubic feet range for gas, to stimulate enough drilling activity to offset industry production declines," he said.

While the current credit crunch and low commodity prices are causing exploration and production companies to rein in their capital spending plans and trim growth outlooks, they should be able to generate solid growth by next year, the analyst said.

The brokerage initiated coverage of Arena Resources Inc (ARD.N) Carrizo Oil & Gas (CRZO.O), BPZ Resources Inc BPZ.A Petro Resources PRC.A with "market outperform" rating.

The also began coverage of Range Resources (RRC.N), Rex Energy (REXX.O) and Southwestern Energy (SWN.N) and Crimson Exploration Inc with "market outperform" rating.

The following are the list of price target

Company Price target

Arena Resources Inc (ARD.N) $58

BPZ Resources Inc BPZ.A $22

Carrizo Oil & Gas (CRZO.O) $58

Petro Resources PRC.A $2.30

Range Resources (RRC.N) $72

Rex Energy (REXX.O) $30

Southwestern Energy (SWN.N) $43 (Reporting by Aftab Ahmed in Bangalore; Editing by Amitha Rajan)