This item is part of Stockwatch's value added news feed and is only available to Stockwatch subscribers.

Here is a sample of this item:

by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery added 75 cents to $53.53 on the New York Merc, while Brent for April added $1.01 to $62.53 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $13.20 to WTI ($40.33), up from a discount of $13.35. Natural gas for March lost 4.5 cents to $2.75. The TSX energy index lost a fraction to close at 235.52.

Scott Ratushny's Cardinal Energy Ltd. (CJ) added 24 cents to $14.19 on 405,500 shares, after striking a deal with Wade Becker's suffering Pinecrest Energy Inc. (PRY), which halved to one cent on 28.7 million shares. The two companies share a director in David Johnson. Pinecrest plans to sell 90 per cent of its assets and all of its $110-million bank debt to a company called Virginia Hills Oil, which will become the resulting public issuer. Pinecrest will then sell the rest of itself to Cardinal for $23.5-million. By the time of the Cardinal deal, Pinecrest will be producing about 170 barrels of oil equivalent a day (non-operated), all from the Slave Point light oil area of Northern Alberta. By comparison, Cardinal expects to average 10,800 barrels a day in the fourth quarter of 2014, all from the Wainwright and Bantry areas of Southern Alberta. This is a smaller acquisition than the company has become known for since it went public through its December, 2013, IPO at $10.50 a share. Just before that, it was producing about 1,500 barrels a day, but it used the IPO proceeds to help pay for the $210-million acquisition of 4,300 barrels a day from Penn West Petroleum Ltd. (PWT: $3.16). Production got two more large boosts in 2014 as Cardinal bought two more sets of assets, together producing 4,400 barrels a day, for a little over $400-million. Each of those acquisitions was accompanied by a financing, the first at $18.50 a share in August and the second at $19.75 in September. The tumbling price of oil has sent Cardinal's shares down, but IPO investors are still up nicely. President and CEO Ratushny has been generally successful with his public companies. He was chairman and CEO of Midway Energy until it was acquired by Whitecap Resources Inc. (WCP: $13.86) in 2012, and chairman and CEO of Pilot Energy until it was acquired by Crescent Point Energy Corp. (CPG: $32.73) in 2008.

The remainder is available to Stockwatch subscribers.
Sign-up for a FREE 30-day Stockwatch subscription and SEE NO ADS