It’s been a while since I posted anything regarding my investment activities, mostly out of lack of information to report on. I’ve been buying more shares of PVX (PVX: chart, web, Y!) recently, but more significantly, there is some good news on Duncan Energy Partners (DEP: chart, web, Y!).

Second quarter results are out, and things are looking strong. A few snippets:

The partnership reported a 45 percent increase in net income to $6.6 million for the second quarter of 2008, compared to net income of $4.5 million for the second quarter …

Duncan Energy Partners (DEP: chart, web, Y!) reported Q3 financials today. They reported a net income of $4.5 million for the quarter, which rounds out to $0.22 per unit, fully diluted share, missing Reuters estimates by $0.01 per share.

Gross operating margin was $19.1 million for Q307 as compared to $22.5 million for Q306. The difference can be attributed to business interruption insurance recoveries, startup expenses for 2007 (remember that DEP went public in February of this year) and the write off of conversion costs when they tried to convert a NGL storage cavern to a natural gas storage cavern, and determined the cavern would not be suitable for natural gas storage.

Consequently, if you adjust for these unusual costs incurred in 2007, the gross operating margin was ahead of that in 2006.

Distributable cash flow for the third quarter was $8.7 million.

“We are pleased to increase the cash distribution rate to our partners this quarter for the first time since our IPO in February,” said Richard H. Bachmann, president and chief executive officer of the general partner of Duncan Energy Partners. “Future increases in the quarterly cash distribution rate are expected as the distributable cash flow from our commercial businesses, whether from our existing assets or the acquisition and/or construction of new assets, warrant.” -Source

Higher than expected capital expenditures brought the overall distributable cash flow for the quarter down, part of which was due to a state requirement to have partial pipeline integrity done by the middle of December.

Bachmann went on to say that he expects the capital expenditure levels to drop going through 2008.

Last Tuesday Duncan Energy Partners (DEP: chart, web, Y!) raised its quarterly dividend by 2.5% to $0.41 per unit.

Duncan Energy is primarily an oil and natural gas pipeline company, and their primary business is transporting and storing natural gas liquids (NGL’s) and petroleum products. A highly attractive sector that is mildly insulated against changes in crude and natural gas prices.

DEP is an MLP, which means they are required to distribue a certain percentage of their earnings to “partners”. The fact that they are raising the dividend indicates that their finances are doing …