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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery added $2.03 to $50.48 on the New York Merc, while Brent for March added $2.41 to $56.57 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $13.20 to WTI ($37.28), down from a discount of $12.80. Natural gas for March lost 6.2 cents to $2.60. The TSX energy index added 4.58 points to close at 230.18.

Al Bey's Rock Energy Inc. (RE) added 18 cents to $2.39 on 3.33 million shares, regaining some of 33 cents it lost yesterday after arranging a $13-million bought deal of 5.6 million shares at $2.35. It had announced a $10-million bought deal late on Tuesday, but boosted it yesterday morning. This morning, FrontFour Capital, a hedge fund run by Zachary George -- son of Rick George of Suncor Energy Inc. (SU: $38.55) fame -- announced that it acquired 90,000 shares yesterday at $2.39, boosting its holdings to 4.12 million of Rock's 40.4 million shares. The name should ring a bell for energy investors. A little over a year ago, FrontFour was taking shots at Renegade Petroleum Ltd., accusing it of "corporate incest" and demanding a board replacement. Renegade returned fire by calling FrontFour "evasive and disruptive." In the lead-up to the special shareholder meeting to settle who should control the board, the pair attacked each other in weekly, sometimes daily, press releases. In the (surprising) end, the incumbent Renegade board emerged victorious, after FrontFour withdrew its requisition just before the meeting was to take place. Zachary George says the investment was still a success for FrontFour. As he told the Alberta Oil Magazine last May, FrontFour had bought about 5 per cent of Renegade's shares (or a little over 10 million) in August, 2013, when they were trading at around $1, down from over $3 a year earlier. Three weeks after Renegade won the dissident battle, it was acquired by Alexander Energy Ltd. at $1.55 a share, and the combined company was renamed Spartan Energy Corp. (SPE: $2.81). "We realized a 40-per-cent return in less than six months," pointed out Zachary George. He added that Spartan is "Renegade in drag," meaning the company is mainly the product of Renegade's assets and cash flow, which in his opinion confirms what he knew all along: The problems all stemmed from mismanagement.

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