The Globe and Mail attempts to identify attractive mid-stream energy companies in its Wednesday edition. The Globe's Michael Bowman writes in the Number Cruncher column that "mid-stream" refers to those companies involved in the transportation, storage and marketing of oil and natural gas. He says these companies typically have lower correlation to the negative price movements of oil and gas, and also generally lower volatility. Mr. Bowman's picks had to be larger than $1-billion (U.S.) in market capitalization. He looked for a low number in the EV/EBITDA (enterprise value divided by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). The enterprise value is composed of the market capitalization, plus debt, minority interest and preferred shares, minus cash and equivalents. The net debt/EBITDA is a measurement of leverage that shows how many years it would take a company to pay back its debt if its net debt and EBITDA are held constant. Again, Mr. Bowman looked for a low number. The dividend yield had to be greater than 3 per cent. His energy plays with low volatility are Enbridge, TransCanada, Inter Pipeline, AltaGas, Kinder Morgan, Williams, Spectra Energy and ONEOK.