In the winter of last year, Goldman Sachs started to warn about significantly higher oil prices coming, and you could bet that the potential from a Russia versus Ukraine war was not the main thesis for its call at that time. But what a difference a year can make, and with the potential for Russia’s supply to get cut off, things could get very dicey.

To give you an idea of the increase over the past 15 months, the week that President Biden took office, West Texas Intermediate was trading in the low $50s per barrel. WTI closed Monday at $104, down almost 3%, as China has basically shut down over yet another COVID-19 wave. That is an incredible 100% increase from just 15 months ago.

Drivers across the United States have been hit hard by the increase, with some cities in California reporting $6 per gallon for gasoline, a gigantic increase for those that have to drive any distance to and from work. Russia exports about 5 million barrels of oil per day, and approximately 3 million barrels of refined products. If that comes out of the world supply for any length of time, we could be in big trouble.

What should investors do now, especially those that think the energy train has left the station? Go with the big boys that can grow some production supply and keep a balance during these trying times. Also bear in mind the companies that move oil and gas are also big beneficiaries of the increases in the higher prices. We screened our 24/7 Wall St. energy research database and found six top stocks to Buy that pay big dividends and still have room to run to the posted Wall Street price targets.

While all six are rated Buy, it is important to remember that no single analyst report should be used as a sole basis for any buying or selling decision.

Enterprise Products Partners

This is the largest publicly traded energy partnership and a leading North American provider of midstream energy services to producers and consumers. Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD) provides a wide variety of midstream energy services, including gathering, processing, transportation and storage of natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation, import and export terminaling, and offshore production platform services.

One reason many analysts may have a liking for the stock might be its distribution coverage ratio. This ratio is well above 1 times, making it relatively less risky among the master limited partnerships.

Investors in Enterprise Products Partners stock receive a 7.69% distribution. The Goldman Sachs price target is $30, and the consensus target is $28.77. Shares traded early Tuesday at $25.30.

Exxon Mobil

Despite the huge rally in oil, this mega-cap energy leader trades below levels posted in 2018 and still offers investors an excellent entry point. Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) is the world’s largest international integrated oil and gas company. It explores for and produces crude oil and natural gas in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Africa and elsewhere.