Energy Up With Oil Futures as Government Shutdown Fears Ebb -- Energy Roundup

Shares of oil and gas companies rose alongside oil futures as traders bet the U.S. would avert a government shutdown. Republican House leaders indicated a short-term funding bill had enough support to pass. Oil futures fell earlier in the session after Ineos, which owns the Forties Pipeline System in the North Sea, said it expects to complete repair work around Christmas and bring oil flowing through the pipeline "progressively back to normal rates" early in the new year. The recent surge in the price of the globally traded Brent oil futures contract was related to the outage of the pipeline, which transports oil from North Sea fields to the U.K. Oil tanker line Euronav agreed to buy rival Gener8 Maritime in an all-share deal worth about $500 million.

-Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 21, 2017 16:17 ET (21:17 GMT)