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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery added 42 cents to $81.42 on the New York Merc, while Brent for December added 20 cents to $86.03 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $14.75 to WTI ($66.67), up from a discount of $14.85. Natural gas for November added 8.8 cents to $3.64. The TSX energy index added 5.27 points to close at 259.28.

Athabasca Oil Corp. (ATH) lost five cents to $3.86 on 6.77 million shares. As if it had not had enough problems recently, yesterday brought an Ebola scare, after the company's camp at the Hangingstone thermal project was put under lockdown. Global News Edmonton reported that a member of the contracted cleaning staff reported flu-like systems after a trip to South Africa. Athabasca initiated a quarantine and began identifying people who had been in contact with the worker. After speaking with Alberta Health Services, Athabasca determined that the worker does not have Ebola, and the quarantine was lifted after a few hours. The company can now get back to work on achieving first steam at the first phase of Hangingstone at the end of the first quarter of 2015. Production should follow four to six months after that, with peak production of 12,000 barrels a day expected in 2016. Athabasca is seeking regulatory permission to expand the project to 82,000 barrels a day. Its other core projects are its Duvernay and Montney assets in the Kaybob area. Investors are disappointed that Athabasca has yet to announce a joint venturer in the Duvernay, something it has been saying it will do for two years. (Investors are surely reminded of its failures to land promised joint venturers at the Hangingstone and Birch projects in 2012.) At least the Kaybob Montney has good news. U.S. consultancy IHS Energy released a report last week saying that the economics of the Alberta Montney are strong enough that drilling should not be affected by the recent oil price decline to $80 (U.S.) a barrel. The play does face "unusual technical challenges" and a relative lack of major operators, said IHS, but the breakeven price for the average oil well is $60 (U.S.) a barrel. Alberta Montney operators mentioned by the study include Athabasca, Long Run Exploration Ltd. (LRE: $3.38) and RMP Energy Inc. (RMP: $6.06).

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