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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery added 92 cents to $33.07 on the New York Merc, while Brent for April added 88 cents to $35.29 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $12.55 to WTI ($20.52), unchanged. Natural gas for March lost 6.7 cents to $1.711. The TSX energy index lost 1.28 points to close at 149.26.

Boulder Energy Ltd. (BXO) bounced up $1.03 to $2.55 on 19.5 million shares, after agreeing to a go-private deal led by ARC Financial at $2.59 a share. That is a 96-per-cent premium to its volume-weighted average price over the last 30 days. Even so, this is an inglorious end to a company that began with such promise less than a year ago. Boulder went public in May after a company called DeeThree Exploration split itself in two and spun out its assets in the Belly River and Bakken plays in Alberta. Boulder got the Belly River assets, which were producing around 8,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, up dramatically from less than 1,000 in 2011. The hype was that these assets would allow Boulder to "grow rapidly over multiple years." The less flashy Bakken assets went to Granite Oil Corp. (GXO: $6.99), which promised no thrilling production increases but offered a three-cent monthly dividend. Investors were initially more excited about Boulder. When both stocks started trading on May 21, Boulder opened at $8.50 and closed at $11.75, while Granite opened at $7.75 and closed at $6.35. Boulder would continue to trade higher than Granite until August. Then the cracks started to show. While Granite was able to raise its dividend in August (and again in November; it now pays 3.5 cents a month and yields 6 per cent), Boulder struggled to meet its production targets. Pipeline constraints, a cost-cutting but production-lowering EOR (enhanced oil recovery) scheme, and modest budgets all took a toll. January's production was just 5,600 barrels a day, about one-third lower than when Boulder started out.

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