3 Energy Stocks With Dividends That Have Never Been Cut

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

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.

Image source: Getty Images.

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.

EOG Resources

EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) has never cut its dividend since becoming a stand-alone publicly traded entity in 1999. In fact, the relatively young company has now upped its annual per-share payout for nine consecutive years.

That's not a meaningful track record yet. There's no end in sight, though. This small, independent driller has a three-year capital spending plan that will plausibly produce annual cash flow growth of 5%, and free cash flow growth of at least 6%, most of which will be used to continue growing its dividend payment. The thing is, this sort of savvy, effective spending is the norm for this management team.

Newcomers will be plugging into a forward-looking dividend yield of right around 3%, and that doesn't count the generous special dividends that are being dished out from any windfall profits.

James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Chevron and Enbridge. The Motley Fool recommends EOG Resources. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.