Oil Futures Climb to $62

Meanwhile, the Energy Information Agency released natural gas inventory figures for the week ended Feb. 22. Gas stocks fell by 132 billion cubic feet, whereas the EIA was anticipating a draw of 139 billion cubic feet.

U.S. natural gas stores remain 14% higher than the five-year average level for the reported week.

Among actively traded securities, the iPath Goldman Sachs Crude Oil(OIL Quote) ETF was up 3 cents to $37.65.

Oil-services firm Newpark Resources (NR Quote) rose 3.6% at $6.32 after being upgraded by First Analysis Securities from equal-weight to overweight.

Hess (HES Quote) was upgraded by Friedman Billings from market perform to outperform and its price target was raised from $58 to $69. Shares of Hess added 23 cents to $53.19.

Natural gas-compression company Universal Compression Holdings (UCO Quote) was downgraded by Capital One Southcoast from buy to hold. Its stock was 54 cents lower at $66.36.