-- Energy stocks were lower late Wednesday afternoon, with the NYSE Energy Sector Index falling 3.3% and the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) dropping 3.5%.
The Philadelphia Oil Service Sector Index was up 0.6%, and the Dow Jones US Utilities Index rose 0.9%.
Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil tumbled nearly 15% to $96.34 a barrel, and the global benchmark Brent crude contract slumped 11.6% to $96.55 a barrel. Henry Hub natural gas futures fell 4.9% to $2.73 per 1 million BTU.
US crude oil stocks, including those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, rose by 1.3 million barrels in the week ended April 3 following an increase of 5.1 million barrels in the previous week. Excluding inventories in the SPR, commercial crude oil stocks increased by 3.1 million barrels after a 5.5-million-barrel gain in the previous week, a larger increase than the 500,000-barrel gain expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.
In corporate news, Talos Energy (TALO) shares fell 7.5% after Roth Capital Partners downgraded the company's stock to neutral from buy and adjusted the price target to $16 from $13.
Exxon Mobil (XOM) expects its global oil-equivalent output to take a hit in Q1 on production disruptions caused by the Middle East conflict. Exxon shares fell 5%.
Shell (SHEL) shares declined 2.2% after the company said it expects Q1 upstream production of 1.76 million to 1.86 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, compared with 1.89 million in Q4.
EON Resources (EONR) said Wednesday it fully hedged 75% of its net production through 2027 to capitalize on oil prices exceeding $110 per barrel due to the Iran war. EON Resources shares dropped 5.8%.