OIH vs UMI

OIHBVanEck Oil Services ETF

UMIDUSCF Midstream Energy Income Fund

In short

OIH OIH skips the barrels and buys the picks and shovels: the drillers, equipment makers and service crews that get paid to punch holes in the ground. Roughly two dozen U.S.-listed names, running since 2011, priced below the energy-fund norm.

UMI Most pipeline funds are index machines. UMI is a stock picker: sub-adviser Miller/Howard runs a concentrated book of US and Canadian midstream names, with current income as the stated first job and a payout that lands monthly.

Stated mandate

OIH The fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of an index representing U.S.-listed companies involved in upstream oil services, including oil equipment, oil services, and oil drilling.

UMI The Fund seeks a high level of current income and, secondarily, capital appreciation. It actively invests at least 80% of net assets in equity securities of U.S. and Canadian midstream energy companies.

Why people hold it

• OIH Owns the toolmakers, not the oil: upstream equipment, services and drilling companies. A different engine than a fund stuffed with producers.vaneck.com
• 0.35% a year, a shade under the typical fee in its energy cohort and level with XOP, the broad exploration-and-production alternative.
• A billion-dollar-plus fund whose trading quality rates among the best in its energy peer group, so getting in and out is rarely the expensive part.
• The lineup comes from a published rulebook, the MVIS US Listed Oil Services 25 Index, not a manager's hunch about which driller wins next.vaneck.com

• UMI Actively managed, not index-tracking. Miller/Howard screens midstream companies on income, distribution coverage, leverage and contract quality, and holds roughly 30 of them.uscfinvestments.com
• Current income is the declared primary objective and capital appreciation the secondary one, and the cash goes out monthly rather than quarterly.
• Canada is written into the mandate, not treated as a footnote: at least 80% of net assets go to equity in US and Canadian midstream companies of any size.uscfinvestments.com
• Direct MLP exposure is capped at 25% of total assets, the line that keeps the fund taxed as a regulated investment company instead of as a corporation.uscfinvestments.com

Worth knowing

• OIH Roughly two dozen stocks in one slice of one sector. That concentration cuts both ways and makes this the jumpier end of energy.
• You own contractors, not reserves. Their sales track what customers spend on drilling, which is a step removed from the oil price itself.vaneck.com
• Cash comes back once or twice a year at most, so income is a byproduct of the strategy rather than the point of it.

• UMI Stock picking carries a price: the 0.85% expense ratio runs well above the median for its oil and gas cohort, where XOP and IEO sit near 0.35%.
• It trades thinly next to the big energy ETFs, so spreads can be wider and sizable orders need more care at the screen.
• About 30 names inside one slice of one sector, and the fund discloses that distributions can include return of capital, which reduces your cost basis.

Full OIH profile⁠

Full UMI profile⁠