Energy stocks were mixed late Thursday afternoon, with the NYSE Energy Sector Index adding 0.1% and the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) fractionally lower.

The Philadelphia Oil Service Sector index rose 0.3%, and the Dow Jones US Utilities index dropped 0.8%.

Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil declined 0.6% to $61.21 a barrel, and the global benchmark Brent crude contract shed 0.7% to $64.47 a barrel.

US natural gas stocks rose by 120 billion cubic feet in the week ended May 16, above the 119 billion gain expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg as of 7:40 am ET and following an increase of 110 billion cubic feet in the previous week.

Henry Hub natural gas futures fell 2.7% to $3.28 per 1 million BTU.

In sector news, Deutsche Bank (DB) will pause a plan to add new restrictions on financing oil and gas firms as it evaluates legal risks, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing Chief Executive Christian Sewing.

In corporate news, American Water Works (AWK) shares fell 1.3%. The company said Wednesday that the Monterey County Superior Court last week denied requests to overturn coastal development permits granted in 2022 by the California Coastal Commission for California American Water's Monterey desalination project.

TotalEnergies (TTE) said Thursday it has inaugurated its largest solar power plant cluster in Europe, near Seville, Spain. Its shares were down 1.1%.

Shares of solar companies were falling Thursday after a tax bill that passed the US House includes cuts to key clean energy credits, according to media reports. SunRun (RUN), Enphase (ENPH), SolarEdge (SEDG), and First Solar (FSLR) shares dropped 37%, 18%, 23% and 4%, respectively.

BP (BP) has started the sale process of its Castrol unit, Reuters reported. BP shares added 0.4%.