Oil stocks were soaring early Monday even as crude prices were largely unmoved following the surprise U.S. operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
U.S. oil companies were by far the biggest risers in the S&P 500 in premarket trading -- Chevron, the last U.S. oil major still operating in Venezuela, was up around 8% ahead of the open.
Meanwhile, oilfield services companies SLB and Halliburton were up more than 9%, while U.S. refiner Valero Energy jumped 8% and energy giant ConocoPhillips rose 7%. Exxon Mobil climbed around 4%.
While oil prices were stable Monday, the gains could be due to the potential opportunity ahead. President Donald Trump said U.S. oil companies will spend billions fixing Venezuela's "broken" oil infrastructure, "taking tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground," in a press conference Saturday.
"We'll be interested to see how the stock prices perform of the likes of Chevron (still working in Venezuela), plus Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, whose oil assets were appropriated in 2007 and who presumably now would get a shot at the reconstruction project," ING's global head of markets, Chris Turner, said in a note early Monday.
Well, the stocks are surging. Whether the moves are justified, or not, remains to be seen.
"Chevron's existing footprint could mean it is best positioned to benefit from more opportunity," TD Cowen analyst Menno Hulshof said in a note Sunday.
Oil prices were edging higher early Monday after the OPEC cartel of producers opted to keep production steady. Brent crude futures and West Texas Intermediate futures were both up around 0.4%.
[Venezuela's oil] is only 1% of global supply, so it's not a huge surprise that we have seen little to no impact, and prices are indeed lower this morning after OPEC+ agreed over the weekend to keep output steady," Saxo Markets analyst Neil Wilson said. "The market is probably more focused on the overhang of 2025 oversupply than near-term geopolitical risks."