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by Stockwatch Business Reporter
West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery added 51 cents to $93.86 on the New York Merc, while Brent for October lost 15 cents to $102.50 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $16.75 to WTI ($77.11), up from a discount of $17.50. Natural gas for September lost 2.6 cents to $3.91. The TSX energy index added 1.60 points to close at 322.95.
John Wright's Lightstream Resources Ltd. (LTS) added 19 cents to $6.30 on 1.12 million shares. The market may be reacting to rumours that the company might soon announce another asset sale. To reduce its debt, currently around $1.8-billion, Lightstream has been trying to sell $600-million of assets by the end of 2015, and has sold $351-million so far. Yesterday on BNN, Eric Nuttall of Sprott Asset Management said he had seen a sales note that suggested that TORC Oil & Gas Ltd. (TOG: $14.81) was thinking about buying Lightstream's conventional assets in southeast Saskatchewan. Mr. Nuttall speculated that such a purchase might spur TORC to increase its dividend by one-third. The current payout is 4.5 cents a month, for a yield of 3.6 per cent. (Lightstream's, by contrast, is four cents a month, for a yield of 7.6 per cent.) Neither TORC nor Lightstream responded to requests for comments by deadline, but Lightstream's chief financial officer, Peter Scott, did say at last week's EnerCom Oil & Gas Conference in Denver, Colo., that the company was looking at offers for its conventional business unit. (As a side note, it is rarely a good sign when a conference host introduces a company with, "What a fun story this has been!" Lightstream's fun story involves falling from nearly $36 shortly after it listed in late 2009.) The conventional unit produced around 4,700 barrels of oil equivalent a day during the second quarter. Mr. Scott did not specify how much Lightstream hoped to receive for its assets, but a clue was provided in July, when it sold just over 1,000 barrels a day of the above production to Spartan Energy Inc. (SPE: $4.12) for $98-million.
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