** Shares of U.S. oil and gas companies rise, as crude prices hover near 2-week highs O/R
** Brent crude LCOc1 up 1.2% at $70.45/bbl and U.S. WTI crude CLc1 up 1.1% at $68.72/bbl, as investors assessed the latest developments on U.S. tariffs and a higher than expected increase to OPEC+ output for August
** Both crude benchmarks are on track for their highest closes since June 23 for a second day in a row
** Energy majors Exxon Mobil XOM.N and Chevron CVX.N up 2.6% and 3.3%, respectively
** Separately, Exxon on Monday flagged lower oil and gas prices could cut its second-quarter earnings by about $1.5 billion from the previous three months, though analysts viewed the update as "neutral"
** Shares of Devon Energy DVN.N jump ~7% - the top pct gainer on the S&P 500 Energy index .SPNY; APA APA.O, Halliburton HAL.N both over 6.5% and Occidental Petroleum OXY.N rises 5.4%
** Oilfield services providers SLB SLB.N and Baker Hughes BKR.O rise 4.4% and 3.3%, respectively
** Refiners: Marathon Petroleum MPC.N up 1.7%, Phillips 66 PSX.N gains 2.7% and Valero Energy VLO.N up over 3%
(Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru)
((Srivastava.Vallari@thomsonreuters.com;))