By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Energy stocks lost ground Wednesday ahead of the weekly petroleum inventory update from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The broader market dragged, while crude oil traded below $73 a barrel.
The NYSE Arca Oil Index (XOI 1,042, -1.84, -0.18%) dipped 0.4% to 1,040. The NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index (XNG 491.79, -0.58, -0.12%) fell about 0.4% to 491. The Philadelphia Oil Service Index (OSX 182.12, +1.05, +0.58%) declined 0.2% to 181.
Analysts surveyed by Platts were expecting a 600,000-barrel build in U.S. commercial crude stocks for the reporting week ended Dec. 4.
Among oil majors, Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM 73.18, +0.23, +0.31%) fell 0.2% to $72.79. Chevron Corp. (CVX 76.80, +0.04, +0.05%) slipped fractionally to $76.74, and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A 59.19, -0.13, -0.22%) dropped 0.6% to $58.96.
The oil majors are prepping to bid on licenses to explore Iraq's oil fields, with the country's huge Majnoon field expected to be the first of 10 to be auctioned beginning this Friday, according to a report from Dow Jones Newswires.
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS 9.80, -0.18, -1.80%) and Sempra Energy (SRE 53.97, -1.01, -1.84%) are exploring the sale of their joint commodity-trading business, according to a report Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal. RBS is already under a mandate to shed the unit under a ruling from the European Commission. RBS wants to do a deal within the next several weeks, according to the newspaper, which cited people familiar with the matter.
Shares of Sempra fell 1.6% to $54.10.
Shares of CNOOC (CEO 153.16, +1.32, +0.87%) rose 0.7% to $152.88 on an announcement by the Chinese oil major and Husky Oil China of a second deepwater gas discovery in the South China Sea.
Utility giant American Electric Power Co. (AEP 34.34, +0.01, +0.03%) rose a penny to $34.34. The company's chief executive officer said in an interview that carbon capture technology will enable it to eliminate emissions from is coal power plants by 2025.
El Paso Electric (EE 19.97, -0.03, -0.15%) traded flat at $20 a share. The company filed its first Texas rate case in 15 years with the Public Utility Commission. The filing requests a net increase in rates of $38.4 million, or 6.9%, including a $50.8 million increase in Texas base rates, offset by a $12.3 million reduction in costs recovered through its fixed fuel factor.
