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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery lost 18 cents to $45.89 on the New York Merc, while Brent for February lost 84 cents to $46.59 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $13.20 to WTI ($32.69), up from a discount of $13.95. Natural gas for February added 14.8 cents to $2.94. The TSX energy index added a fraction to close at 199.32.

Pat Carlson's Seven Generations Energy Ltd. (VII), down nine cents to $15.31 on 529,600 shares, stood out from the crowd by making no changes to its 2015 budget and production guidance, set all the way back in the third quarter during its IPO road show. It closed the $18-a-share IPO for $931.5-million on Nov. 5. The stock reached a high of $24.70 less than a week later, but developments in the oil market, particularly OPEC's Nov. 27 refusal to cut production, sent it hurtling down to a low of $14.39 at the beginning of December. It rallied over the next few weeks but is now flirting with $15 again. Seven Generations' share price may be rocky, but operationally, things seem to be going quite smoothly. On Sunday, the company estimated that it produced 30,800 barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2014, exceeding guidance of 27,000 to 30,000 barrels a day. This compares with production of 7,786 barrels a day in 2013 and 4,180 barrels a day in 2012. The company attributes the large increases to productive wells in the liquids-rich Alberta Montney, specifically the Kakwa area, which it entered in 2008. In 2015, the goal is to increase production to 55,000 to 60,000 barrels a day. Seven Generations set this goal months ago, based on a budget of $1.6-billion, and on Sunday it said those plans remain intact. The main focus continues to be a 99,000-acre development block at Kakwa called the Nest. The average well there is more productive, richer and sweeter than most Deep basin Montney wells, which Seven Generations believes is because of unique reservoir characteristics, such as cooler temperatures in the source rocks. About four-fifths of next year's drilling activity will be in the Nest. Between the strong Nest wells and its hedges for 2015 (about 40 per cent of forecast gas and 30 per cent of forecast oil), Seven Generations feels no need to change its budget, at least at the moment.

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