Energy stocks were sharply higher this afternoon, with the NYSE Energy Sector Index rising 4.9% and the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF (XLE) up 5.6%. The Philadelphia Oil-Service Sector index was posting a 5.4% advance and the Dow Jones US Utilities Index was adding 1.9%. West Texas Intermediate crude oil was rising $1.44 to $111.00 per barrel, while North Sea Brent crude was advancing $0.74 to $114.87 per barrel. Henry Hub natural gas futures were $0.08 lower at $6.86 per 1 million BTU. In company news, Performance Shipping (PSHG) jumped 3.5% after disclosing plans to acquire a 105,071-ton Aframax tanker built in 2009 from an unaffiliated third party for nearly $27.6 million. Delivery is expected July 5, the company said. APA (APA) rose 2.7% after flow test data collected at two lower levels from its Krabdagu exploration well offshore of Suriname showed an oil-in-place resource of nearly 100 million and 80 million barrels, respectively. An APA subsidiary owns a 50% working interest in the well while operator TotalEnergies (TTE) holds the remaining stake. TotalEnergies shares were 2.2% higher this afternoon. ProFrac Holding (PFHC) slid 3.7% after Tuesday announcing its purchase of two subsidiaries in the Permian Basin of western Texas from privately held Signal Peak Silica for around $90 million, nearly doubling production capacity for the oilfield services company to around 6 million tons per year and also adding roughly 25,000 tons of on-site storage. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.