09:20 AM EDT, 05/15/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Energy stocks were leaning lower pre-bell Wednesday as the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund ( XLE ) was marginally declining by 0.1% recently.

The United States Oil Fund ( USO ) was 0.5% lower, and the United States Natural Gas Fund ( UNG ) was up 0.4%.

Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude was down 0.4% at $77.69 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Global benchmark Brent lost 0.4% to $82.07 per barrel, and natural-gas futures were up 1.8% at $2.38 per 1 million BTU.

Petrobras (PBR) fell more than 7% after saying Jean Paul Prattes has offered to step down as its chief executive and as a board member. Several news outlets reported that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had fired Prattes from the state-owned oil company due to a dispute over dividend payments.

CNX Resources ( CNX ) and KeyState Energy are collaborating to build a hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel facility estimated to cost about $1.5 billion at Pittsburgh International Airport, the companies announced. CNX Resources ( CNX ) was down more than 2% pre-bell.

Seadrill ( SDRL ) was down more than 1% after it reported Q1 earnings of $0.81 per diluted share, down from $0.83 a year earlier.