Let me start with one admission: I have no idea when the current slide in the oil price will end.

I won't insult your intelligence by putting out a price target because I – like everyone else — would be pulling a number out of thin air.

Broad supply and demand imbalances do not cause market crashes. Wild changes in sentiment do, and trying to call a bottom in the middle of a crash is an exercise in forecasting irrational mood swings.

As I'm writing this, West Texas Intermediate crude is up slightly on the day. But it's down by nearly half since the summer highs. We may very well have seen the low of the Great Oil Crash of 2014 … or we might see another leg down.

I have no idea. And frankly, it doesn't matter all that much to me.

When I build a retirement income portfolio, I look for stocks with long histories of paying and raising their dividends regardless of what is happening in the market.  And today, after the rout in oil price stocks, we have our pick of the litter among world class dividend payers.

Today, I'll share three of my favorites.

Exxon Mobil Corporation

I'll start with the bluest of blue-chip supermajors, Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM).

I compared Exxon Mobil to Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) in a recent dividend smackdown, and while Microsoft won the round for being a more aggressive raiser in recent years, it was a close contest.

After the recent selloff in oil stocks, XOM stock currently yields 3.1%. This isn't a monster payout by any stretch, but it is competitive in a world in which the 10-year Treasury yields a pitiful 2.2%.

Exxon Mobil pays out only 33% of its earnings as dividends. So, come what may with the price of crude oil, there is still plenty of room for dividend growth in the years ahead. And indeed, Exxon Mobil has been a serial dividend raiser over time, boosting its payout every year for the past 32 years.