Tortoise keeps a close watch on the industry, she said, with 55 employees dedicated to watching everything "from the bottom up," and proprietary methods of tracking performance and prospects.
These people watch not only the so-called "midstream" pipeline and storage tank companies, but also the "upstream" producers and "downstream" distributors, Kelly said.
Tortoise, which has $19.2 billion under management, chose that name to symbolize their belief in the "slow and steady wins the race" virtues of that creature, and its virtues of tenacity, patience and resilience, according to the company Web site.
The Web site even has a video of a tortoise exhibiting those qualities in action. It is not as compelling as the classic "lion prowling Wall Street" black-and-white commercial that helped make the Dreyfus Fund such a success in the 1960s. But it is a distinctive piece of footage.