Why August Was a Bad Month for Oil Drillers

Shares of many oil exploration and production stocks dropped more than 14% in August, including Parsley Energy (NYSE: PE), down 14.3%; Sanchez Energy (NYSE: SN), down 14.6%; Concho Resources (NYSE: CXO), down 15.1%; Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL), down 16.4%; and Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE: PXD), down 20.8%.

This was in a month when the S&P 500 was basically flat, losing just 0.2% in August. The oil and gas exploration and production industry as a whole -- as measured by the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF -- fell just 6.6%. The largest U.S. independent oil and gas driller, ConocoPhillips, closed the month with only a modest 2.4% drop. So these five stocks were definitely worse off than average. Let's look at why.

Oil drillers underperformed the stock market in August, and the trend seems likely to continue. Image source: Getty Images.

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Source: Fool.com