09:02 AM EDT, 05/16/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Energy stocks were steady premarket Friday as the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) was recently inactive.

The United States Oil Fund (USO) was up 0.3% and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) was 0.4% higher.

Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 0.5% at $61.92 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Global benchmark North Sea Brent crude oil gained 0.5% to $64.82 per barrel, and natural gas futures were 0.4% lower at $3.35 per 1 million British Thermal Units.

Vistra ( VST ) shares were up over 3% after the company said it signed a definitive agreement to acquire seven natural gas generation facilities totaling about 2,600 megawatts from Lotus Infrastructure Partners in a deal valued at $1.9 billion.