Oil prices up slightly following seized Venezuelan tanker incident

While crude oil prices recorded only a slight gain on Thursday following the U.S. seizure of a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday, natural gas prices suffered with a more than 8% drop for the day.

Both Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate rose about 0.4%.

Reuters reported it might not be the last tanker to be seized and impounded by the U.S. The U.S. is preparing to intercept more ships transporting Venezuelan oil following the seizure of a tanker this week, as it increases pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, six sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

West Texas Intermediate finished at $58.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the global standard, finished at $62.21 per barrel.

Natural gas prices suffered a fall of 8.10% or $0.372 before settling at $4.223 MMBtu.

Oklahoma energy stocks recorded a near-slit in Thursday’s trading but in the end, the number of firms with losses outnumbered those with gains. Stardust Power had a strong day with a more than 7% gain while Mammoth Energy dropped more than 4% for the day.