US oil prices drop 2% while international prices increase

Oil prices in the U.S. took a nearly half-dollar hit in Tuesday’s trading as Western Texas Intermediate crude dropped 2%, settling at $25.31 for the day on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

WTI fell 47 cents while Brent crude, the international benchmark gained 35 cents and finished at $29.98 a barrel. Natural gas prices fell a penny to $1.71 per MMBtu.

Local stocks were mostly down as well. Chesapeake Energy plunged 15% for the day, dropping $1.92 a share before finishing Tuesday’s trading at $10.98.

ConocoPhillips dropped 69 cents and finished at $41.58 while Devon Energy was off 6 cents at $12.40 a share.

Marathon Oil was up 21 cents for a 4% gain, finishing at $5.96 a share. ONEOK gained $1.56 in trading, a 5% increase and finished at $32.94 a share.

Phillips 66 dropped 4% or $3.14 before ending the day at $73.53. SandRidge Energy dropped 10% or 18 cents before finishing at $1.66.

American Electric Power dropped 2% or $1.26 and ended at $77.91.