Time’s short, and not just for the editor of this newsletter. Saudi military intervention against proxies of archrival Iran in lawless Yemen and the resulting spike in oil prices are testing claims that $40 a barrel represents the new normal.  

It’s an overdue reminder that North American shale development, now taken for granted, has been just about the only source of new supply in recent years for a world consistently using more energy than the year before.

As Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD) asked in so many words in a recent presentation, if OPEC is such a reliable and stable supplier why hasn’t it been able to increase oil exports in years even as crude prices doubled?

The obvious answer is that the necessary will, expertise and capital have been lacking, or stymied by incompetence and corruption. That ought to be good news in the long run for North American producers, and it’s been money in the bank for years for developers of the domestic midstream infrastructure.

This month’s annual Portfolio Checkup parsed a multitude of stats and forecasts for each of the recommendations in our portfolio and found no reason to doubt the industry’s ambitious growth plans. Many of the projects under construction or on the drawing board are being driven by the rising domestic demand for energy products, be they gas for heating or crude for delivery to refineries running full throttle. These are not circumstances that are going to discomfit many, if any, MLPs.

NuStar Energy (NYSE: NS) is an excellent example of that, as it races to keep up with Eagle Ford crude production that remains high and profitable even at these low oil prices. NuStar and its general partner NuStar GP Holdings (NYSE: NSH) are promising investments covered in this issue’s New Buys.

Last but not least, Portfolio Update has news of numerous pipeline and logistics projects pushing ahead based on the undeniable needs of energy producers and  consumers. Most MLPs lost ground over the last month in profit-taking that followed February’s gains. But it won’t take long for sentiment to swing again if Mideast unrest makes recent energy prices look unsustainably low.