MDU?

Considering this day started out rather slow, it certainly ended up being a very, very busy day.

See:

• Flaring concerns? Not to worry. Don't fight it.
• ONEOK to build a fifth natural gas gathering and processing plant.
• "Wet" natural gas -- #1 in return; see slide 17 of this PDF. (I haven't gone through the presentation, but "anon 1" directed me to slide 17.)
• Screenshot of natural gas production in North Dakota.
• Also, see the long comment at this post; the comment is time/dated: January 17, 2013, 10:09 pm.

Now, that you have refreshed yourself, look at this graph, comparing the two-year chart of two companies operating in the Bakken. One company's shares have appreciated 0% over the past two years. The other company's shares have appreciated 60% over the past two years (and recently as much as 70%). One company pays a dividend rate of 2.9%; the other, 3.1%. [The link worked for me; I don't know if it's a dynamic link; if the link "doesn't work," use Yahoo!Finance to compare MDU and OKE over the past two years.]

For those holding shares of MDU who are frustrated, a possible "replacement" might be OKE.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. I don't follow MDU any more; I have talked about MDU before. MDU was one of my early investments and I held it for years, but I finally sold it some years ago; I forget when I sold it but I think it was during the early days of the Bakken boom, perhaps when MDU/Fidelity/Oasis/Cottonwood story was announced. But I honestly forget; I might have sold MDU before then. So I don't follow MDU any more, but that doesn't mean I am not aware of its activity.

In a way, MDU will reflect the economy of the US because of its three, four, or five core competencies/divisions: if the US economy turns around, MDU should do very well. And the tea leaves suggest the US economy is turning around, suggesting to some that MDU might do so also.

But day in, day out, I see ONEOK activity in North Dakota, and the tea leaves certainly suggest continued growth.

Again, this is not an investment site: I'm not recommending anything. But ONEOK certainly has my attention. [Note: I own no shares in MDU or any of the ONEOK "companies." I won't be buying shares in either company in the near future, and probably never will. I'm already pretty overweighted in energy and won't buy more energy, except through already established automatic dividend reinvestment programs.]