1. Units of Buckeye Partners LP (NYSE: BPL) trade at a discount to other midstream MLPs because of investors’ concerns about disappointing fourth-quarter results and full-year distribution coverage. Digging behind the numbers reveals that this underperformance reflects expansion costs that appeared before the benefits of adding new assets. Buckeye Partners’ $250 million purchase of Chevron’s New York Harbor marine terminal, for example, will show up mainly as an expense in 2012. But this acquisition fits perfectly with the partnership’s land- and sea-based assets and could be expanded down the line.

Management still has to prove that recent moves will improve the coverage ratio. At these levels, Buckeye Partners looks like a rare bargain in an industry that’s being bid to the sky. Buy Buckeye Partners LP, a new addition to the Conservative Portfolio, up to 65.

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2. Regardless of what happens with Kinder Morgan Inc’s (NYSE: KMI) acquisition of El Paso Corp (NYSE: EP), El Paso Pipeline Partners LP’s (NYSE: EPB) operational performance and outlook appear sanguine. Fourth-quarter DCF surged 18 percent from a year ago, and the MLP appears poised for another big year after acquiring $1.4 billion worth of assets from El Paso in 2011. With a foothold in prolific shale plays that are starved of infrastructure, El Paso Pipeline Partners’ has a bright future. Buy new Conservative Portfolio holding El Paso Pipeline Partners up to 38.

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3. Mid-Con Energy Partners LP (NSDQ: MCEP) owns about 9.9 million barrels of oil-equivalent reserves in Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado. Crude oil accounts for 98 percent of the master limited partnership’s (MLP) estimated reserves, a favorable asset base at a time when natural gas prices continue to hover near record lows. Mid-Con Energy Partners LP rates a buy under 26.50 in the Aggressive Portfolio.

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4. Eagle Rock Energy Partners LP (NSDQ: EROC) les of gathering pipelines in the Texas Panhandle, east Texas and Louisiana, south Texas, and the Gulf of Mexico. These small-diameter pipelines connect individual wells to processing facilities and, ultimately, the US interstate pipeline network. The firm also owns 19 processing plants that separate NGLs such as propane and ethane from raw natural gas; these plants are typically associated with Eagle Rock Energy’s gathering systems. In 2011 the firm gathered an average of 475 million cubic feet per day of gas and processed almost 390 million cubic feet per day.

Eagle Rock Energy Partners’ exposure to commodity prices means the stock isn’t necessarily suitable for conservative investors. But the MLP’s potential distribution growth is adequate compensation for this risk. Buy Growth Portfolio holding Eagle Rock Energy Partners LP up to 12.

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