Energy firms were rallying pre-bell Monday with the Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) recently climbing past 0.8%. The United States Oil Fund (USO) and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) were recently up more than 1%. West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up $0.19 at $42.53 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. The global benchmark Brent crude gained $0.37 to $45.30 per barrel and natural gas futures were 4 cents higher at $2.488 per 1 million British Thermal Units.
Noble Energy (NBL) was over 1.6% higher after saying a special meeting of shareholders has been scheduled for Oct. 2 to approve its pending merger with Chevron (CVX).
DHT Holdings (DHT) said bondholders have exercised their right to convert all $125 million of the oil tanker company's outstanding 4.5% convertible senior notes due 2021 in common stock, with the company issuing nearly 23.4 million new shares at a rate of $5.34 per share. DHT was up 0.6% in recent premarket activity.
Oil firms evacuated staff and shut down 13% of crude oil production on Saturday ahead of tropical storms Laura and Marco, which are expected to affect the Gulf of Mexico in the coming days, Reuters reported. BP (BP) and Chevron (CVX) started shutting down production Friday, while Occidental Petroleum (OXY) said it was implementing weather-related steps. The three companies were recently trading higher.
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