Shares of energy companies fell slightly as a slide in the price of natural gas offset deal activity.

PDC Energy shares surged after Chevron agreed to buy the oil-exploration company for $6.3 billion in stock, expanding its acreage in the productive Permian Basin oilfields of West Texas and New Mexico. Shares of PDC peer Pioneer Energy Services, which was reportedly approached by Chevron's larger rival Exxon Mobil about an acquisition earlier this year, rose in sympathy.

Natural gas futures plunged 7%, giving back about half of their gains from last week. Separately, Exxon spent about $100 million buying land in the Smackover formation of southern Arkansas from an exploration company called Galvanic Energy as the largest U.S. oil company by revenue joined the rush for lithium resources, The Wall Street Journal reported.


Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-22-23 1749ET