What: Shares of energy company NuStar Energy L.P. (NS -0.71%) fell 19% in January as energy prices continued their slide.
So what: Fundamentally, it wasn't a bad month for NuStar or the midstream business in general. The company reported $150.6 million in fourth quarter EBITDA compared to $136.0 million a year ago. And the company also shipped the first export cargo of domestic produced crude oil in 40 years.
Now what: Low oil prices aren't necessarily a bad thing for NuStar Energy and could actually be an advantage for operations. Storage revenue was up in the fourth quarter and so was pipeline revenue, which helped drive the growing EBITDA. But with U.S. oil inventory hitting a peak and likely to decline in 2016 there may be concern that this is as good as results will get. At the end of the day, I think NuStar Energy is better positioned in today's energy market than most competitors and the recent quarterly distribution of $1.095 per share gives investors great value, even if it does decline slightly in 2016.
