Heading into a new trading week, oil and gas stocks are seeing high interest from retail investors amid the escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Stocks such as Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE:OXY), United States Oil Fund LP (NYSE:USO), iPath Pure Beat Crude Oil ETN (NYSE:OIL) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) are among the ten most discussed stocks on Reddit's WallStreetBets forum as at press time early Monday.

United States Oil Fund, Indonesia Energy Corp. Limited (NYSE:INDO), Exxon Mobil and Occidental Petroleum are the top four trending tickers on Stocktwits.

Meanwhile, activist investor Carl Icahn has in recent days sold the last of what was earlier a nearly 10% stake in Occidental Petroleum, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

Why It Matters: Crude oil prices continued to surge early Monday after it was reported that the U.S. and its allies are considering a ban on Russian oil and natural gas imports.

Surging oil prices have stoked concerns about inflation as Russia is the world's second-largest oil exporter.

Gas prices in the U.S. have reached their highest levels since 2008 as the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalated last week.

The surge in oil prices prompted Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk to plead on Friday that the U.S. should immediately increase oil and gas production.

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