| Viper Energy Partners (Nasdaq: VNOM) is currently trading for $25 per unit. I say "unit" instead of "share" because Viper is structured as a master limited partnership (MLP). That means it returns a lot of cash to unitholders. If the price of West Texas Intermediate oil averages $70 per barrel this year, Viper is expected to distribute $2.76 per unit to investors. A $2.76 distribution on a $25 stock price equates to an 11% distribution yield. I like that double-digit return! I also like everything else that I know about Viper... Viper is what's known as a royalty stream MLP. And it's appealing based on both what it does have and what it doesn't have. Let me start with what it doesn't have: a large number of employees, significant overhead expenses or a need for any spending on capital expenditures. Viper doesn't really need to spend much money because the partnership doesn't really "do" anything. It just owns the mineral rights to oil-rich land in the Permian Basin. Nothing else. It is beautifully simple. And beautifully profitable. Owning those mineral rights means oil producers that are drilling for oil on Viper's land pay Viper a royalty of approximately 20% of the revenue they generate. Viper is basically like the taxman. Someone else does all the work, and the taxman gets to take a nice, fat percentage of the income being generated. So Viper's business essentially consists of sitting around and waiting for oil producers to send the company a check each month. The more oil these producers pump out and the higher the price of oil goes, the bigger those checks are for Viper. Sounds like a sweet deal... But is there a catch? | 
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