Oil stocks are very different from oil futures (USO). The advert/spam video isn't really part of the article, either, but it makes clear that it is revering to companies like Chevron ($CVX), etc; not USO.

(It's bad advice for investors anyway; if you're naive enough to take advice from a random website, you should just buy and hold low-cost whole-market index funds.)

How is investing in oil majors or low-leveraged midstream a bad idea?

Not only do many of these companies have a good balance sheet, but they're 4-6X undervalued if you're long on the investment.

Furthermore, these companies are at price points where the dividend yield is 30-60%. You could put a percentage of your yearly salary in and retire on passive income when the market returns to normal.

Having a passive income stream is the ultimate way to pursue building a startup.

Oil will come back.

I don't follow, dividend yields on the 6 oil majors range from ~5-12% as far as I can tell. It's a far cry from 30-60%. Also many oil companies especially outside of the majors are notorious from having huge debt loads.

I assume the parent is referring to the fact that companies, like Occidental ($OXY) were paying $3.18/share in annual dividends prior to this crash, while trading in the mid-high $40's (~9%). Now that $OXY is down at a near-term high of $15/share that dividend yield represents 21.2%. A few weeks ago it was down at $10/share (~31.8%). That's just one off-hand example, and it's pretty comparable across the industry. Even big players like $XOM were/are in a similar boat, if not to the same extent.

$OXY earnings is coming up this week and I suspect that dividend is going to get slaughtered -- after all, they elected to pay Warren Buffet's special dividend in stock in lieu of cash. If the op is super-long term, I assume they're suggesting that the stock could return, and with it, the dividend, which would be "30%" of your original investment.