Do you need reliable investment income for the indefinite future? Dividend stocks remain your best bet, particularly if you want this income to at least keep up with inflation. But some of the market’s best dividend stocks come from a surprising industry… the energy sector. Despite all the wild ups and downs of oil (and natural gas) prices over the years, three energy stocks have never been forced to cut their dividend payments.
Chevron
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Oil giant Chevron (NYSE: CVX) has been through several changes in its long history, including being bought by Standard Oil, and its own acquisition of Gulf Oil in 1984. Its long-term dividend history is difficult to track, and doesn’t mean much anyway.
We can say, however, that the Chevron we know and love today has been able to at least maintain its dividend payment for more than 50 years, overcoming many volatile price swings of crude oil that can work for and against its important upstream (exploring and drilling) business.
What Chevron has done to handle these swings without jeopardizing its ability to sustain its dividends is as obvious as it is simple. That is, it doesn’t overcommit to these payments. Last year was a relatively lousy one for the industry, undermined by poor prices. Yet, Chevron’s total 2025 per-share payout of $6.84 was still more than covered by last year’s earnings.
Indeed, Chevron’s not only paid a quarterly dividend like clockwork for decades, it has now raised its annual per-share payout for 39 consecutive years. Its current forward-looking dividend yield of 3.8% is also one of the best in the business at this time.
Enbridge
While Chevron manages an upstream (drilling) and downstream (refining) business, Enbridge (NYSE: ENB) operates in the middle. It’s a midstream name, delivering gas and oil through its 18,000 miles of liquid pipelines and nearly 19,000 miles of natural gas pipelines in Canada and the United States. In fact, this company handles nearly one-third of all of North America’s crude oil.
It’s an ideal business model for supporting reliable dividends, too. The ever-changing prices of oil or gas don’t affect its profitability, since the company simply charges a flat volume-based fee for the use of its pipeline network. The consistent consumption of natural gas and oil has allowed Enbridge to raise its dividend payment every year for the past 31 years, and by more than a little.