03:40 PM EDT, 06/11/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Energy stocks were higher late Wednesday afternoon, with the NYSE Energy Sector Index rising 1.5% and the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) up 1.1%.

The Philadelphia Oil Service Sector index added 1%, and the Dow Jones US Utilities index was 0.1% higher.

US crude oil stocks, including those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell by 3.4 million barrels in the week ended June 6, following a decrease of 3.8 million barrels in the previous week. Excluding inventories in the SPR, commercial crude oil stocks fell by 3.6 million barrels after a 4.3-million-barrel decline in the previous week, a larger drop than the 2.6-million-barrel decrease expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.

Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 4.3% to $67.80 a barrel, and the global benchmark Brent crude contract advanced 3.8% to $69.42 a barrel. Henry Hub natural gas futures were 0.4% lower at $3.52 per 1 million BTU.

In sector news, AES ( AES ) shares rose 1.5% after it said Wednesday that it completed construction of the Bellefield 1 project, a 1,000-megawatt solar and energy storage facility in California.

Oklo ( OKLO ) shares surged 29% after it said Wednesday it was selected as an intended awardee by the Defense Logistics Agency Energy to provide power via the deployment of an Aurora powerhouse at the Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska.

Talen Energy ( TLN ) shares gained 7.1% after the company said it agreed to provide nuclear power from its Susquehanna power plant in Pennsylvania to Amazon's (AMZN) cloud-computing unit Amazon Web Services' data centers.

Sunrun ( RUN ) shares fell 3.6% after Jefferies downgraded the solar company's stock to underperform from hold.