Sector Update: Energy Stocks Climb Premarket Friday

Energy stocks were climbing ahead of Friday's market open as the Energy Select Sector SPDR XLE was up by 1.3%. The United States Oil Fund USO was 2.3% higher, and the United States Natural Gas Fund UNG gained 0.8% recently.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up $2.03 at $68.53 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. The global benchmark Brent crude gained $2.12 to $71.79 per barrel and natural gas futures were 12 cents higher at $4.18 per 1 million BTU.

In company news, TotalEnergies TTE shares were unchanged after announcing the commencement of production at CLOV Phase 2, a project connected to the existing CLOV Floating Production, Storage and Offloading unit in Angola.

Eni E was up almost 1% after its Versalis subsidiary entered into a continuous mass technology licensing and basic engineering design agreement with Supreme Petrochem of India for its acrylonitrile butadiene styrene unit in Maharashtra state.