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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery lost 71 cents to $97.37 on the New York Merc, while Brent for September lost $1.66 to $103.02 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $17.70 to WTI ($79.67), up from a discount of $18. Natural gas for September added 0.9 cent to $3.97. The TSX energy index lost 1.98 points to close at 311.73.

Jeff Boyce's Tamarack Valley Energy Ltd. (TVE) lost three cents to $6.82 on 1.33 million shares. Yesterday, it bounded up 50 cents after releasing a pleasing second quarter update and increasing its production guidance. Production was 5,203 barrels of oil equivalent a day during the second quarter, meeting Tamarack's predictions (as set out in May), and up sharply from 4,182 barrels a day in the first quarter. A big factor behind the increase was timing. Tamarack drilled 14 (11 net) wells during the first quarter, mainly in the Cardium and the Redwater Viking in Alberta, but did not start bringing them on stream until April. It also drilled 17 net wells during the second quarter (although seven of them will not be on production until the third quarter). This is a much higher number than usual, thanks to a milder-than-expected spring breakup, which allowed Tamarack to accelerate drilling in the Cardium and the Viking. It is now "well ahead" on its Cardium drill program and one full quarter ahead on its Viking program. Finally, the company enjoyed better-than-budgeted results in the Cardium and the Viking, as well as from four new heavy oil wells at Hatton in southwest Saskatchewan. Given all this, Tamarack has raised its full-year production guidance to a range of 5,500 to 5,700 barrels a day (up from 5,300 to 5,500 barrels a day) and its year-end guidance to a range of 7,300 to 7,500 barrels a day (from 6,500 to 6,700). It has also boosted its 2014 budget to $116-million from $92-million. The plan for the rest of the year is to focus on the Cardium. Tamarack has been drilling the play for years, but really picked up activity last summer, when it arranged a farm-in to earn 70 per cent of up to 113 net sections in the Pembina area. This increased its net prospective Cardium sections by 900 per cent. Tamarack has until Dec. 31, 2016, to drill 20 net wells, under the terms of the farm-in, but it has liked its results so much that it keeps pushing its drill plans forward. As of Dec. 31, 2013 -- five months after the farm-in period began -- it had already completed one-quarter of its drill commitments. It hopes to complete about two-thirds by the end of this year.

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