US oil futures dropped Monday while Brent rose

 

As tensions rose between Beijing and Washington over the prospects for crude demand, U.S. benchmark oil futures settled lower on Monday. But overseas, prices were up on reports that OPEC will meet June 4 to discuss a possible extension to the existing crude outputs.

West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery dropped 5 cents and settled the day at $35.44 a barrel in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, Brent Crude rose 77 cents or about 2% on the August contract and finished the day at $38.61 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.  Russia and members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, a group known as OPEC+, were moving toward an agreement to extend current output cuts by one or two months, Reuters reported on Monday, citing people familiar with talks. The report comes ahead of a meeting of OPEC and its allies, which could occur on June 4, instead of a previously scheduled June 9-10, Reuters also reported.

Natural gas prices dropped 7 cents to $1.77 per MMBtu which translated into a 4% decline.

Chesapeake Energy trading saw shares remain unchanged at $13.01 while SandRidge Energy saw a 6 cent drop to $1.52 or a 4% decline.

ConocoPhillips dropped nearly 3% or $1.21 a share before ending the day’s trading at $43.39. Devon Energy added 89 cents or 8.2% to finish at $11.70 a share.

EOG Resources was up 84 cents or about 2% to reach $51.81. Marathon Oil added 35 cents or 6.5% to finish Monday’s trading at $5.69.

ONEOK added $1.45 or 4% to settle at $38.14 while Phillips 66 grew by 56 cents before ending trading at $78.83 a share.

American Electric Power finished the day up 89 cents at $86.14 a share.