What Is One of the Best Energy Stocks to Buy and Hold for 10 Years?

So far this year, the energy sector has been the stock market’s best-performing sector, and it hasn’t been close. While investors greatly appreciate the recent gains, long-term returns ultimately matter more.

If you’re looking for an energy stock you can hold for the next decade, look no further than oil and gas giant Chevron (CVX 0.48%).

Chevron operates in all three phases of the oil and gas value chain: upstream, midstream, and downstream. Upstream deals with exploration and production, midstream deals with transportation and storage, and downstream deals with refining oil into finished products like gasoline. That means Chevron is in the whole supply chain, from ground to gas tanks.

The energy sector is cyclical. Sometimes, crude oil prices are high, and drilling is profitable. Other times, excess supply makes transporting and storing crude oil more profitable. However, since Chevron’s business is vertically integrated, it has multiple revenue streams that pick up the slack when one segment of the market is down.

That doesn’t mean it’s immune to cyclical downturns, but the long-term appeal remains strong. If you’re going to hold an energy stock for at least a decade, you want one you can trust to weather downturns and continue returning value to shareholders. With 39 consecutive years of dividend increases under its belt, Chevron has shown that it can do just that.