Energy stocks were advancing premarket Tuesday with the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) 0.2% higher recently.

The United States Oil Fund (USO) was 0.5% higher and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) was down 3.1%.

Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 0.2% at $68.53 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Global benchmark North Sea Brent crude oil was up 0.1% to $72.23 per barrel. Natural gas futures were down 2.8% at $3.093 per 1 million British Thermal Units.

Kinetik Holdings (KNTK) is set to acquire Permian Resources' (PR) natural gas and crude oil gathering systems in Reeves County, Texas, for $180 million in cash. Shares of Kinetik Holdings climbed 4.1% and Permian Resources rose 0.3%.

Shell (SHEL) has reached an out-of-court settlement with Greenpeace over a lawsuit relating to climate activists occupying a Shell offshore vessel in the UK North Sea for nearly two weeks during a 2023 protest, Greenpeace said Tuesday. Shell did not immediately respond to MT Newswires' request for comment. Shell shares were up 0.2%.

TransAlta (TAC) shares rose 5.2% after the company maintained its quarterly dividend of CA$0.06 ($0.04) per share, payable April 1 to shareholders of record on March 1.