Energy shares bucked the trend of the broader market to finish higher as oil prices surged to a seven-year high.
OPEC and a Russia-led group of oil producers agreed to continue increasing production in measured steps, delegates said Monday, deciding against opening the taps more widely.
Climbing oil prices recently had analysts and economists expecting OPEC and its Russia-led allies to lift production more significantly. Instead, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia said the group, which calls itself OPEC+, would lift its collective output by 400,000 barrels a day in monthly installments, part of a previously agreed plan to return output to pre-Covid-19 levels.
Meanwhile, shares of Amplify Energy lost about half their value Monday after a major oil spill at the company's platform off the coast of Orange County, Calif., over the weekend.
California officials on Sunday were trying to limit damage from the spill of an estimated 126,000 gallons that extended from Newport Beach to Huntington Beach, a distance of about 6 miles.
Amplify, a Houston-based oil and natural-gas company, said it has shut down all of its production and pipeline operations in the area as a precautionary measure, adding that it has sent a remotely operated vehicle to investigate and attempt to confirm the source of the release.
A U.K. court on Monday fined Petrofac Ltd. £77 million (equivalent to $104.3 million) for failing to prevent senior executives from using agents to bribe public officials for oil contracts in the Middle East.
Write to Amy Pessetto at amy.pessetto@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-04-21 1703ET
