U.S. Oil Stocks Plunge 6% Amid Crude Price Drop, $420 Billion Vanished in a Day

Murphy Oil Corporation (MUR), a U.S. independent exploration and production company that had been in the spotlight as a dividend stock, saw its shares tumble 6.01% to close at $36.88 on the New York Stock Exchange on the 17th. Its market capitalization dropped to about $5.27 billion (approximately KRW 7.4 trillion), erasing roughly $299 million (around KRW 420 billion) in a single session. Having climbed nearly 40% over the past year, the stock was hit by heavy profit-taking after international oil prices slid almost 9% on mounting hopes for a ceasefire with Iran.

In early April, Murphy Oil announced a quarterly dividend of $0.35 per share, implying an annual yield of around 3% based on $1.40 per share, extending its consecutive dividend streak to 56 years. At the end of January, alongside its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results, the company reaffirmed plans to pursue production growth, dividend increases, and share repurchases from 2026 onward, driven by securing the Gharb Deep offshore block in Morocco and developing offshore fields in Vietnam.

Based in Houston, Texas, Murphy Oil is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company operating onshore and offshore assets in the U.S. Eagle Ford shale, Canada, the Gulf of Mexico, and Vietnam. Since January 2025, under CEO Eric Hambly, the company has pursued a strategy of high dividends combined with restructuring its debt into long-term bonds, positioning its offshore projects in Vietnam and Morocco as key growth drivers.