AMZA vs XOP

AMZAFInfraCap MLP ETF

XOPAState Street SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF

In short

AMZA Most of the oil-and-gas aisle buys drillers through an index. AMZA runs a tight book of energy-infrastructure MLPs (the toll roads hydrocarbons travel on) and pays monthly. The boutique option in its cohort, priced like one.

XOP Most oil funds lean hard on a couple of supermajors. XOP goes the other way: a modified equal-weighted basket of roughly 50 drillers, refiners and producers, reset every quarter, so a small-cap operator can count about as much as a giant. Running since 2006.

Stated mandate

AMZA The Fund seeks total return mainly through equity securities of publicly traded MLPs and partnership-taxed LLCs, with at least 80% of assets normally invested in MLPs operating in energy infrastructure.

XOP The fund seeks, before fees and expenses, to track the total return performance of the S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Select Industry Index.

Why people hold it

• AMZA Mandate keeps at least 80% of assets in MLPs operating energy infrastructure, so the exposure leans toward pipelines and storage rather than the wellhead economics most peers track.
• Distributions arrive monthly rather than quarterly, a cadence income-focused holders tend to want from an MLP sleeve.
• Trading since 2014, so it has run through a full energy cycle instead of showing up after the rebound. The book stays tight, roughly two dozen partnerships.

• XOP Modified equal weighting, reset quarterly, means no single supermajor dominates and large, mid and small-cap names sit side by side.ssga.comspglobal.com
• A 0.35% expense ratio, below the typical charge among oil and gas E&P peers.
• Actively traded, and one of the smoother tickers to get into and out of in the energy aisle.
• Wider net than the name suggests: the index also reaches integrated oil and gas plus refining and marketing companies, not just pure explorers.ssga.com

Worth knowing

• AMZA The fee is the headline trade-off: 1.72% a year, several times the typical charge among oil-and-gas ETFs in its cohort.
• It trades thinly for its size. Limit orders and calm-market execution matter more here than with the cohort's heavily traded index funds.
• Roughly two dozen names in one corner of one sector means single-partnership news lands hard. On our review it sits in the back of its peer group.

• XOP Equal weighting lifts smaller drillers in the mix, so swings in both directions tend to run sharper than in cap-weighted energy funds.ssga.com
• One industry, one commodity complex: this rides crude and natural gas, with about 50 holdings and no ballast from outside the patch.
• Cheaper shelfmates exist. Peer PBOG lists a 0.13% expense ratio, though it tracks a different index and a different mix of names.

Full AMZA profile⁠

Full XOP profile⁠