SelectSingleNode returns null when tag contains xmlNamespace

Taken right from the documentation of SelectSingleNode() on the MSDN:

Note
If the XPath expression does not include a prefix, it is assumed that the namespace URI is the empty namespace. If your XML includes a default namespace, you must still add a prefix and namespace URI to the XmlNamespaceManager; otherwise, you will not get a node selected. For more information, see Select Nodes Using XPath Navigation.

And the immediately following sample code is

XmlNamespaceManager nsmgr = new XmlNamespaceManager(doc.NameTable);
nsmgr.AddNamespace("ab", "http://www.lucernepublishing.com");
XmlNode book = doc.SelectSingleNode("//ab:book", nsmgr);

It's not as if this would be "hidden knowledge". ;-)

This way you don't need to specify namespace:

XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.LoadXml("your xml");
XmlNode node = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("/*[local-name() = 'Compile']");
XmlNode nodeToImport = xmlDoc2.ImportNode(node, true);
xmlDoc2.AppendChild(nodeToImport);

You should use an XmlNamespaceManager in your call to SelectSingleNode():

XmlNamespaceManager ns = new XmlNamespaceManager(xmldoc.NameTable);
ns.AddNamespace("msbld", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003");
XmlNode node = xmldoc.SelectSingleNode("//msbld:Compile", ns);