01:47 PM EST, 11/17/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Energy stocks were lower Monday afternoon, with the NYSE Energy Sector Index easing 0.2% and the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) down 0.8%.

The Philadelphia Oil Service Sector Index was decreasing 0.6%, while the Dow Jones US Utilities Index was rising 0.7%.

Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil was declining 0.2% to $60.00 a barrel, and the global benchmark Brent crude contract was shedding 0.2% to $64.26 a barrel. Henry Hub natural gas futures fell 2.8% to $4.44 per 1 million BTU.

In corporate news, Chevron ( CVX ) is exploring the purchase of some global assets from the sanctioned Russian oil company Lukoil, Reuters reported. Chevron ( CVX ) shares were down 1.2%.

Murphy Oil's ( MUR ) Murphy Exploration & Production subsidiary has signed a multiyear deal to migrate its exploration and subsurface workflows to GeoComputing's RiVA private cloud platform, GeoComputing said Monday. Murphy was down 1.2%.

Excelerate Energy ( EE ) shares rose 1.1% after Tudor Pickering Holt upgraded the stock to buy from hold, and raised its price target to $37 from $31.