Energy stocks rose late Friday afternoon, with the NYSE Energy Sector Index climbing 1.8% and the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) adding 1.5%.
The Philadelphia Oil Service Sector Index rose 0.7% and the Dow Jones US Utilities Index increased 0.9%.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 3.2% to $67.30 a barrel, and global benchmark Brent advanced 2.5% to $72.48 a barrel. Henry Hub natural gas futures rose 1.2% to $2.86 per 1 million BTU.
In corporate news, the Chevron-led (CVX) Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan has returned to near full production capacity following a power outage in late January, Reuters quoted Kazakh Energy Minister Erlan Akkenzhenov as saying on Friday. Chevron shares rose 1.3%.
AES (AES) shares jumped past 6% after Bloomberg reported that BlackRock's (BLK) Global Infrastructure Partners and EQT are in advanced talks to buy the company.
A sale of assets seized from Halliburton (HAL) by Venezuela was canceled after US officials and President Donald Trump pressed the South American nation's new leader to do so, Bloomberg reported. Halliburton shares rose 0.8%.
TotalEnergies (TTE) has bought a large volume of Middle East crude oil in February so far on a trading window that is contributing to the pricing of the regional Dubai oil benchmark, Bloomberg reported, citing traders and brokers. TotalEnergies shares added 1.6%.