09:11 AM EDT, 05/29/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Energy stocks were lower premarket Wednesday as the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) was recently 0.2% down.

The United States Oil Fund (USO) was 0.1% lower and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) was down 2.8%.

Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 0.5% at $80.22 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Global benchmark North Sea Brent crude oil gained 0.4% to $84.28 per barrel, and natural gas futures were down 2.3% at $2.76 per 1 million British Thermal Units.

ConocoPhillips ( COP ) will acquire Marathon Oil ( MRO ) in an all-stock deal with an enterprise value of $22.5 billion, inclusive of $5.4 billion of net debt, the companies announced. Marathon Oil ( MRO ) shares advanced by over 11% pre-bell while ConocoPhillips ( COP ) shares were down 1.2%.