There are many reasons and many ways to profit from the increasing use of natural gas.

Article on this site have mentioned natural gas stocks such as Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CPK).  Big Oil firms that are also active in natural gas production such as Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) and BP PLC (NYSE: BP) are another way for investors to profit.  Investing in the pipelines that carry the natural can also be rewarding, especially in the firms that facilitate operations such as Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM).

Iron Mountain is the premier company in pipeline integrity management.

For a pipeline to carry natural gas, there is a tremendous amount of record keeping involved.  It is needed for the maintenance and upkeep of the pipeline network.  This keeps natural gas flowing smoothly and wards off threats.  It also complies with the massive amounts of rules and regulations that go along with operating a system of pipelines that carry natural gas.

There is a drastic need for more pipelines and it will only increase.

A pipeline shortage is why natural gas prices in the United States when demand increases due to cold weather.  It is even more dire in other countries. There is little in the way of a pipeline system in India or China, which want to use more natural gas and less coal.  The need will increase along as more and more use natural gas as a fuel.  Pipelines are better for the environment and not as prone to accidents as trains or trucks that carry fuel.

Iron Mountain is down in recent market action.

But it is up over 10% for the last quarter of trading.  Now around $28.20, the mean analyst target price for the next year is $32.75.  The dividend yield is 3.83 percent.