It’s been a good year so far for MLPs, the sector handily beating the stock market at its mid-year peak and then bouncing right back from its early August correction. In fact, as of Sept. 11 the Alerian MLP index had returned 18% year-to-date including distributions and was less than 1% from a record high set two weeks earlier.

And then came Friday’s 2% kick in the shins, presumably on the combination of higher interest rates and lower crude prices.

Brent crude was down to $97 a barrel, a two-year low, on worries about slippage in global demand as Chinese and European purchases have slowed. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury is now yielding 2.61%, up from 2.35% at the end of August.

Is that quarter-point of a rise in the benchmark yield germane to MLPs’. Despite the latter’s record-low distribution yields, probably not. The German 10-year Bund is at 1.08%. Japan’s 10-year government bond yields 0.57%. And while MLPs are not even remotely competing for the same pool of investment money, the collapse in developed economy rates overseas probably does limit how much Treasury yields might rise from here.

In any case, yield accounts for well less than half of historic MLP returns. So long as domestic shale drilling continues to increase, midstream infrastructure should remain primarily a growth story.

Is it a story jeopardized by $90 crude? The fact that this is now seen as cheap mostly shows just how comfortable the world has become with the doubling of the oil prices over the last decade. For the moment, shale drilling in North America is providing all of growth in global supply, and $80 crude would likely bring that growth to a halt within a year or two.

Saudi Arabia, the only foreign producer with much slack, has already begun cutting production and needs crude close to current levels or higher in order to maintain the spending that keeps the lid on its subjects’ discontent.

Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency’s global demand forecast still sees next year’s consumption more than 2 million barrels above that in 2013. That means that this year and next the world will still have to add the annual output of two Bakkens to meet the growth in demand.

Because we’re discussing financial markets, it must be said that almost anything is possible, for crude as well as rates. But odds are this one bad Friday will not mark the end of MLPs’ impressive winning record over the long haul.

Our portfolios continue to outperform the MLP space, keyed by the strong gains of such 2014 picks as UGI (NYSE: UGI; 27% since February), SemGroup (NYSE: SEMG; 24% since June) and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners (NYSE: BWP;  35% since April). Two of these are sponsors of MLPs rather than partnerships and a third was picked up in the wake of its huge drop earlier this year. Several other of our relatively recent general partner  recommendations, notably Energy Transfer Equity (NYSE: ETE), Alliance Holdings GP (NYSE: AHGP) and Targa Resources (NYSE: TRGP) are also thriving.

This month we’re adding another corporate MLP sponsor to our portfolio in Canadian midstream giant TransCanada (NYSE: TRP). Its 3.2% dividend yield is now competitive with what MLPs offer, yet TransCanada spends only a third of its cash flow on dividends, leaving the rest available to finance its large slate of lucrative growth projects. Please see New Buys for details.

Rapid growth is also the order of the day in the Eagle Ford, where midstream operators are trying to keep up with booming shale production. This month’s In Focus reviews the growth plans of several of the major players in this play, which are well represented in our portfolios.

Portfolio Update provides some context for the recent weakness in Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) and the summer strength of MarkWest Energy Partners (NYSE: MWE).   The bigger picture here is that things are going about as well as could be hoped, notwithstanding one late-summer Friday.