Crude oil held steady in Thursday’s trading

Crude oil prices remained close to a three-week low after Thursday’s trading after the US resumed sanctions against Venezuela and Iran while tensions seemed to cool a little in the Middle East where Israel still could produce a military response to Iran’s attack.

West Texas Intermediate crude, considered the US benchmark rose 4 cents or 0.1% and settled at $82.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. WTI fell to its lowest close since the end of March.

Brent curde, the global benchmark, slipped 18 cents or 0.2% and finished at $87.11 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. It was the lowest finish for Brent since March 27.

May natural gas rose 5 cents to $1.76 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Thursday was another day of mixed trading for Oklahoma energy stocks. Empire Petroleum fell 4% while PHX Minerals gained 4%.

Other energy stocks finished down for the day, according to the Texas Energy Report.

APA Corp. (Apache) (APA) up 0.17 at 32.43 – change 0.52%

Cheniere (LNG) up 3.62 at 160.43 – change 2.30%

Chevron (CVX) up 1.17 at 157.57 – change 0.74%

ConocoPhillips (COP) down 0.52 at 127.81 – change 0.41%

Diamondback Energy (FANG) down 1.55 at 199.60 – change 0.78%

Energy Transfer LP (ET) up 0.30 at 15.53 – change 1.96%

Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) up 0.05 at 28.44 – change 0.17%

EOG Resources (EOG) down 0.64 at 131.76 – change 0.49%

Exxon Mobil (XOM) down 0.11 at 118.52 – change 0.10%

Kinder Morgan (KMI) up 0.45 at 18.21 – change 2.53%

Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) down 0.29 at 27.40 – change 1.02%

NOV Inc. (NOV) up 0.03 at 18.50 – change 0.16%

Occidental Petroleum (OXY) up 0.06 at 66.04 – change 0.09%

Phillips 66 (PSX) down 3.94 at 153.31 – change 2.51%

Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) up 0.18 at 267.97 – change 0.06%

Tellurian Inc. (TELL) unchanged at 0.38 – change 0.00%

Valero (VLO) down 4.79 at 162.49 – change 2.87%

CLOSING TOP UTILITY STOCKS

American Electric Power (AEP) up 1.32 at 82.56 – change 1.62%

CenterPoint (CNP) up 0.25 at 27.95 – change 0.90%

Entergy (ETR) up 0.56 at 103.75 – change 0.54%