4 ETFs That Are Worth Buying For $100 Oil

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Quick Read

• Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil transits, pushed WTI crude from $55 in December to nearly $95, creating a supply shock that benefits upstream producers and integrated majors through higher realizations while pipelines benefit from increased drilling volumes.

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Oil futures touched $100 per barrel this week as Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, the waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas transits. The International Energy Agency called the conflict the biggest-ever disruption to oil supply, and Iran’s security chief has stated the war won’t end soon.

WTI crude, which bottomed near $55 per barrel in December 2025, has surged to nearly $95 as of March 9. The speed of that move, not just the level, is what makes the current setup consequential for energy investors.

Four ETFs and funds offer meaningfully different exposures to elevated oil prices: a broad U.S. energy fund, a global energy fund, a midstream pipeline fund, and a mutual fund focused on MLP infrastructure. Each captures a distinct piece of the oil price transmission mechanism.

XLE: The Direct Earnings Lever

The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund is the most straightforward way to own the companies that print money when oil is expensive. With 99% of the portfolio in energy and ExxonMobil and Chevron together representing about 41% of holdings, XLE offers direct exposure to the earnings power of integrated oil majors. When WTI is at $95, those companies are generating cash at a rate that compresses their valuations quickly. Year to date, XLE has climbed 27%, a move that reflects how directly integrated oil major earnings respond to a sustained price spike — the fund’s one-year gain of 35% captures the full arc from last December’s trough to today’s near-$95 prices.

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The fund also holds E&P names like ConocoPhillips and EOG Resources, oilfield services companies like SLB and Halliburton, and refiners like Valero and Marathon Petroleum. That breadth means the fund participates in multiple parts of the oil price cycle: upstream producers benefit from higher realizations, services companies benefit from increased drilling activity, and refiners benefit from wide crack spreads. The expense ratio of 0.08% makes it among the cheapest ways to access this exposure.

The tradeoff is concentration at the top. When ExxonMobil and Chevron report weaker-than-expected quarters or announce capital discipline measures, the fund moves on those names regardless of what the rest of the energy sector is doing.

IXC: Owning the Global Windfall

The iShares Global Energy ETF makes a case that XLE cannot: when oil disruptions are geopolitical and global, the companies best positioned to benefit are not exclusively American. Shell, BP, TotalEnergies, and Equinor all operate production assets that become more valuable when a supply shock pushes Brent toward $100. IXC holds all of them alongside the U.S. majors, giving the fund a broader earnings base during a crisis centered outside U.S. borders.

The fund tracks the S&P Global Energy Sector Index and carries $1.9 billion in assets. Its dividend yield sits near 3.5%, reflecting the income-heavy nature of the integrated majors it holds. European majors like Shell and TotalEnergies repriced more aggressively as the conflict escalated — a dynamic that has driven IXC’s stronger one-year return relative to XLE and reflects the global rather than purely American nature of this supply shock. The fund also holds Canadian producers like Suncor and Canadian Natural Resources, which benefit from the same supply shock dynamics without Hormuz-specific risk.

Currency exposure is the main caveat. Owning Shell in British pounds and TotalEnergies in euros means IXC’s returns in dollar terms depend partly on foreign exchange moves. A strengthening dollar could partially offset gains from rising oil prices for U.S.-based investors.

AMLP: The Infrastructure Play That Doesn’t Need Oil to Stay at $100

The Alerian MLP ETF takes a structurally different approach. The pipelines and gathering systems owned by Enterprise Products Partners, Energy Transfer, and Plains All American don’t sell oil. They move it. Their revenues are largely fee-based, tied to the volume of hydrocarbons flowing through their systems rather than the price of those hydrocarbons. If oil prices fall back to $70, AMLP’s income stream holds up in a way an E&P company’s earnings would not.

At the same time, $100 oil is good for AMLP because it incentivizes more drilling, which means more volumes flowing through those pipes. The fund holds 13 concentrated MLP positions, with its top six names collectively dominating the portfolio. Assets stand at nearly $12 billion, making it one of the largest MLP-focused funds available. Year to date, AMLP has gained 14%, a more modest move than XLE or IXC, which reflects its lower sensitivity to oil price direction.

AMLP is organized as a C-corporation rather than a partnership, which means investors receive a standard 1099 at tax time rather than a K-1. For taxable accounts, that simplicity is a real advantage. The expense ratio of 0.85% is higher than XLE or IXC, a cost worth weighing given the fee-based income profile already limits upside relative to pure-play E&P funds.

MLPIX: A Mutual Fund Route Into Midstream

MLPIX offers a mutual fund structure for investors who want midstream and MLP exposure but prefer active management or need a vehicle compatible with retirement accounts that don’t accept ETFs. The midstream sector’s fee-based revenue model underpins both MLPIX and AMLP, and their broadly similar one-year returns — MLPIX at nearly 12% and AMLP at 12% — reflect that shared exposure to the same underlying assets.

The recent divergence tells a more interesting story. Over the past month, MLPIX has declined about 7% while AMLP has gained nearly 5% over the same window. That gap likely reflects differences in portfolio construction, active management decisions, or fee drag, and may not represent a fundamental divergence in the midstream sector itself. Investors comparing the two should examine holdings and fee structures carefully before choosing between them.

The mutual fund format means MLPIX prices once per day at NAV rather than trading intraday like AMLP. The ETF structure of AMLP allows intraday trading, while MLPIX prices once daily at NAV.

Four Funds, Four Different Exposures to the Same Crisis

XLE and IXC offer maximum earnings leverage to oil prices, with IXC providing broader geographic exposure to a supply shock that is fundamentally global in nature. AMLP’s fee-based pipeline revenues hold up across a wider range of commodity price scenarios, giving it a different risk profile than pure-play E&P funds. MLPIX covers the same midstream thesis in a mutual fund wrapper, a structure that may be relevant for certain account types that do not accommodate ETFs.

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