Energy stocks rose late Wednesday afternoon, with the NYSE Energy Sector Index edging up 0.2% and the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) adding 0.3%.

The Philadelphia Oil Service Sector Index climbed 1.9%, and the Dow Jones US Utilities Index increased 0.1%.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil declined 0.6% to $61.98 a barrel, and global benchmark Brent decreased 0.7% to $65.54 a barrel. Henry Hub natural gas futures jumped 5.1% to $3.47 per 1 million BTU.

US crude oil stocks, including those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, rose by 2.5 million barrels in the week ended Friday following a decrease of 400,000 in the previous week. Excluding inventories in the SPR, commercial crude oil stocks rose by 1.8 million after a decline of 600,000 in the previous week.

In corporate news, US crude production growth will stall if oil prices remain near $60 a barrel, Diamondback Energy (FANG) Chief Executive Officer Kaes Van't Hof said Wednesday at an energy conference in Austin, Reuters reported. Diamondback shares rose 0.5%.

BlackRock-owned (BLK) Global Infrastructure Partners is close to acquiring utility group AES (AES) in a roughly $38 billion deal, the Financial Times reported. AES shares jumped past 16%.

The US government is set to acquire a stake in Lithium Americas (LAC), Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said Tuesday on Bloomberg TV, in a major support to the company's lithium project development in Nevada. Lithium shares surged 23%.

Equinor's (EQNR) offshore Empire Wind 2 project near New York could be reconsidered by the Trump administration, Bloomberg reported, citing a Tuesday filing with a US federal court. Equinor shares added 1%.