Glickenhaus likes three pipeline partnerships: Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners (BWP). Citigroup thinks the pipeline group can generate total returns of nearly 63% in the next 12 months.

Glickenhaus likes three pipeline partnerships: Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners (BWP). Citigroup thinks the pipeline group can generate total returns of nearly 63% in the next 12 months.

Boardwalk, of Owensboro, Ky. -- which has the lowest ratio of long-term debt to capital among Glickenhaus' picks (38%) -- owns natural-gas storage fields and operates two gas pipelines in the Southeastern U.S. At its recent quote around 16, Boardwalk looks reasonably priced, at an enterprise value (debt plus equity) of 11 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization -- near the Alerian index's average.

Another outfit with fee-based cash flow, El Paso Pipeline (EPB), offers a 9% yield and should produce 10% compound annual growth in distributions over the next five years, according to Wachovia Capital Markets research. El Paso Pipeline's debt level is reasonable at 54%, and Wachovia thinks the stock is worth almost double its recent price near 13. One big plus: General partner El Paso Corp. (EP) recently dropped $971 million in pipeline assets into the partnership. A Wachovia report praised the deal, financed via a private debt placement and issuance of new units, saying it "reaffirms EPB's commitment to the MLP business model, and gives management credibility in delivering...to EPB unitholders."

For individual investors averse to filing the tax forms required annually of MLP owners, another option is owning the MLP general partner, says Timothy Call, chief investment officer at the Capital Management Corp., a Richmond, Va., investment-advisory firm. Call thinks that demand for U.S. natural-gas pipelines will increase, boosting returns for interstate operators like those controlled by OneOk Partners (OKS). But Call prefers shares of its general partner, OneOk (OKE), the Tulsa, Okla., natural-gas utility with a large stake in OneOk Partners.

THE BIGGER FISH, OneOk, buys, transports, stores and distributes natural gas. It yields 6.4%, which isn't too shabby, and its shares recently fell to a 52-week low near 26. Despite the gloom in the financial markets, analysts' 2009 earnings estimates are $3.49 a share, giving the stock a price/earnings ratio of just below eight times expected profits.

Another option: exchange-traded MLP funds. Two trade at a discount to their net asset value. The BearLinx Alerian MLP Select Index (BSR) has a 10% yield. The other, the MLP & Strategic Equity Fund (MTP), which holds a basket of energy MLPs and dabbles in forward contracts, yields near 14%.

Another option: exchange-traded MLP funds. Two trade at a discount to their net asset value. The BearLinx Alerian MLP Select Index (BSR) has a 10% yield. The other, the MLP & Strategic Equity Fund (MTP), which holds a basket of energy MLPs and dabbles in forward contracts, yields near 14%.