Crude oil prices took a noise dive in Wednesday’s trading as crude in the US and London dropped more than 5%. It was a race to see who dropped the most—crude oil or the crude production companies.
West Texas Intermediate crude July futures dropped $2.36 a barrel or nearly 6% before settling at $38.01 in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had managed to stay above the $40 level for only a few days before plunging.
Brent August futures dropped $2.33 or 5.5% on the London ICE futures and finished the day at $40.30, only 30 cents above the $40 mark.
Natural gas prices dropped 4 cents to $1.60 per MMBtu.
Local oil stocks followed the pattern of declining oil prices with ONEOK seeing a 9% drop or $3.06 a share, finishing at $32.39. Devon Energy declined 9.13% or $1.13 to wrap up trading at $11.25 a share.
Marathon Oil tumbled 8.5% or 54 cents before settling at $5.79 a share. ConocoPhillips dropped 6% or $3.16 a share and finished the day at $51.61.
Chesapeake Energy slid 4.5% or 56 cents before ending the day’s trading at $11.71 a share. EOG Resources dropped 7% or $R3.51 a share and ended the day at $48.95.
Phillips 66 slid 6.3% or $4.71 a share and finished the day at $69.98. SandRidge Energy took a 7% nosedive or 9 cents a share and finished the day at $1.25 a share.