09:26 AM EST, 01/09/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Energy stocks were advancing premarket Friday, with the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF ( XLE ) up 0.4%.

The United States Oil Fund ( USO ) was 0.3% lower and The United States Natural Gas Fund ( UNG ) was down 2%.

Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 0.9% at $58.27 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Global benchmark North Sea Brent crude oil gained 0.8% to reach $62.49 per barrel, and natural gas futures were 2.7% lower at $3.32 per 1 million British Thermal Units.

Chevron ( CVX ) loaded 1.68 million barrels of Venezuelan oil onto tankers in the first week of January, the most for that period since May and nearly five times more than the same period in December, Bloomberg reported, citing its vessel movement tracking data. Shares of Chevron ( CVX ) were up nearly 1%, while Eni stock was 0.2% higher premarket.

TotalEnergies (TTE) and partners Eni (E) and QatarEnergy have signed a deal with the Lebanese government to enter an exploration permit offshore Lebanon. TotalEnergies stock were marginally lower pre-bell.