Oil & Gas Having One Of Best Days In Recent Memory

Oil and gas stocks are having one of the best days in recent memory, thanks to a continued rally in oil prices, which rose 6 percent in the last five days. Friday's increase was aided by strong U.S. jobs data that led WTI crude breach its $35 resistance level. Currently, crude oil for April delivery trades at $35.72, up 3.33 percent. Currently, charts for crude oil shows a Relative Strength Index (RSI) above 49. Crude prices have recovered from their 12-year lows hit less than 2 months ago. On March 2, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said crude inventories rose by 10.4 million barrels to 518 million during the week to Feb. 26. The American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. crude stocks grew by 9.9 million barrels last week. The rise in US crude oil imports led to the massive surge in the US crude oil inventory despite the high storage capacity utilization rate. Among the heavyweights, ConocoPhillips COP rose 7 percent, and Chevron Corporation CVX gained 1 percent, while Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM remained almost flat. Both Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) RDS and BP plc (ADR) BP increased 1 percent, while Total SA (ADR) TOT edged up 2 percent. Among the biggest gainers, shares of Seadrill Ltd SDRL increased 74 percent, Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (ADR) PBR gained 15 percent, and Halcon Resources Corp HK advanced 65 percent. Shares of LinnCo LLC LNCO surged 104 percent, Linn Energy LLC LINE climbed 61 percent, and Energy XXI Ltd EXXI jumped 64 percent. Shares of Callon Petroleum Company CPE surged more than 10 percent as an oil price recovery is expected to bring strong demand for the company's share offering. Callon on Thursday said it has priced an upsized underwritten public offering of 13,265,000 shares of its common stock for total estimated gross proceeds of approximately $86.2 million.