Permian Basin Royalty Trust (NYSE: >NRT), a trust that owns oil and gas royalty interests in Germany, yields 7.6% and has returned 312% during the past decade.

Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE: target="_blank">here. If you haven't heard of these energy companies, you're not alone. And if you have heard of them, you're ahead of the curve.

The truth is, when you mention income-paying energy stocks, the first thing that comes to most investors' minds are the oil giants like ExxonMobil (NYSE: >CVX). But Exxon pays just a 2.5% dividend yield. Chevron pays 3.3%.

However, the yields you can find in the energy sector can be much more rewarding, if you know where to look.

Let me explain...

MLPs, or master limited partnerships, are some of the easily overlooked links in the energy chain.

Many income investors have heard of these partnerships, but I know most haven't. MLPs run critical "midstream" energy infrastructure -- the pipelines, storage tanks, terminals and ships that move energy from producer to user. It's not a glamorous business. But the fact that most MLPs pay steady yields in the 5%-7% range, and some as high as 13%, sure make them stars for income investors.

And if you really start digging for income, you can come across even more opportunities that blow away the dividend yields most people associate with energy investments.

There's the little-known class of just two dozen companies that T. Boone Pickens pioneered in 1979. They're called royalty trusts, and they allow anyone to collect royalties from some of the world's most prolific oil and gas fields. Simply put, royalty trusts allow you to buy a stake in the production of an oil field, just as simply as you would any stock.

I already mentioned two royalty trusts above, but you almost can't talk about this asset class without mentioning BP Prudhoe Bay (NYSE:

Then there are the tanker companies. Every day the U.S. imports 12 million barrels of oil, up 50% from a decade ago. Europe imports about the same amount. That's great news for the tanker business because the majority of the world's oil is transported by ship -- usually across thousands of miles of ocean. When business is good, profit margins are embarrassingly large. An oil tanker that holds 2 million barrels of oil costs about $18,000 per day to run -- and can fetch $180,000 per day on the charter market. These stocks can be volatile, but double-digit yields aren't uncommon.

And the truth is, these types of securities are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to energy-focused investments that pay strong dividends. Yet, many investors don't know they exist... much less that they are offering such appealing dividend opportunities.

As editor of StreetAuthority's newest advisory --

Stay tuned...

Good investing!