Energy stocks were lower Friday afternoon, with the NYSE Energy Sector Index dropping 1% and the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) falling 1.6%.

The Philadelphia Oil Service Sector index decreased 0.2%, and the Dow Jones US Utilities index shed 0.5%.

Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down 0.8% at $72.18 a barrel while the global benchmark Brent crude contract was easing 0.1% to $76.76 a barrel. Henry Hub natural gas futures were adding 0.1% to $3.05 per 1 million BTU.

In corporate news, Chevron's (CVX) Q4 revenue and oil production topped expectations but earnings missed Wall Street estimates. Its shares fell 3.6%.

Exxon Mobil (XOM) reported Q4 earnings of $1.72 per share, exceeding the FactSet consensus analyst estimate of $1.64. Q4 revenue was $83.43 billion, missing the consensus of $86.33 billion. Exxon Mobil shares dropped 1.9%.

Petrobras (PBR) will raise its Diesel A prices to distributors by 0.22 Brazilian real per liter on Feb. 1, Bloomberg reported. The shares rose 1.2%.