The Standard & Poor's Energy index <.GSPE> was up 0.2 percent at 604.18 points, near its lifetime high of 612.71 reached last week, but Exxon Mobil <XOM.N> shares slipped 71 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $92.98 despite the new high oil price.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil companies' shares got a modest boost as crude oil prices touched a record $100 per barrel on Wednesday, but some analysts do not expect that to trigger a rally in energy's biggest names.
The Standard & Poor's Energy index <.GSPE> was up 0.2 percent at 604.18 points, near its lifetime high of 612.71 reached last week, but Exxon Mobil <XOM.N> shares slipped 71 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $92.98 despite the new high oil price.
Exxon Mobil's stock had reached a record high close last week at $95.
Conoco Phillips <COP.N> shares were off 1.2 percent at $87.16, while Chevron <CVX.N> shares were down 0.4 percent at $92.99.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Leading the index gainers were independent producers Apache Corp <APA.N>, Devon Energy <DVN.N> and EOG Resources <EOG.N>, which rely more on natural gas prices than oil, and oil-services groups Schlumberger <SLB.N> and Weatherford International <WFT.N>.
Market watchers have been expecting crude oil prices to touch $100 per barrel over the past several weeks, with speculative buyers jumping into the market that has climbed on worries about potential supply disruption from key producers such as Nigeria and Venezuela.
But with the $100-per-barrel mark reached and forecasts for soft winter demand in the Northern Hemisphere, crude prices could begin to erode, according to John S. Herold analyst John Parry, and major oil company stocks appear vulnerable to a pullback.
"They can go up a little further, but I would say the rush to (oil majors) has a limited upside," he said.
While high oil prices have helped boost oil majors' profits and share prices over the past year, production-sharing contracts in many countries usually direct much of the profit from very high prices to government coffers.
"(These) integrated energy companies do not make more money when oil prices go up this quickly," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co in Boston.
"So, to a certain extent, you're not going to see run-up in energy stocks just because we're hitting a new level in energy prices, especially since the common belief is that the commodity price is driven in large part by a fear of disruption of supply."
A better bet could be the mid-sized oil producers, including Hess <HES.N>, Suncor Energy <SU.TO>, Occidental Petroleum <OXY.N> and Marathon Oil <MRO.N>, according to Paul Sankey, an analyst with Deutsche Bank.
Among those names, Hess led the pack in 2007 by doubling its share price, while Suncor lagged with an 18 percent gain.
"If we hold above $90 in oil, I think we could see at least another 15 percent upside" for those stocks, he said.
(Reporting by Matt Daily and Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Brian Moss/Maureen Bavdek)
