09:06 AM EDT, 06/26/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Energy stocks were slightly lower premarket Wednesday with the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) recently down 0.1%.

The United States Oil Fund (USO) was up 0.1% and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) was 1.7% lower.

Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil was flat at $80.83 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Global benchmark North Sea Brent crude oil gained 0.1% to $84.31 per barrel, and natural gas futures were down 2.4% at $2.79 per 1 million British Thermal Units.

Transocean ( RIG ) was up over 2% after saying it has extended the contract with an independent operator for its Deepwater Asgard drill ship in the Gulf of Mexico by another year.