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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery added $1.76 to $45.72 on the New York Merc, while Brent for May added 91 cents to $55.32 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $13.35 to WTI ($32.37), unchanged. Natural gas for April lost 2.7 cents to $2.78. The TSX energy index added 2.16 points to close at 211.95.

Paul Colborne's Surge Energy Inc. (SGY) added a cent to $2.78 on 2.72 million shares, following the release of its year-end financials. Net loss for the fourth quarter was $109-million, compared with just $2.8-million a year earlier, mainly because of $211.5-million in impairment charges recorded at the end of 2014. Production came to a "record" 20,448 barrels of oil equivalent a day. That figure looks good next to production of 12,014 barrels a day in the same quarter of 2013 (for a largely acquisition-related increase of 70 per cent), but not very good next to 20,327 barrels a day in the previous quarter of 2014 (for an increase of just 0.6 per cent). In any event, Surge had already announced its fourth quarter production in a previous update. That led analysts to predict cash flow for the quarter of 27 cents a share, but the actual figure was slightly lower, at 25 cents a share. Later on, Surge talked up its "excellent start to 2015." Notably, a new well drilled in the Valhalla Doig play of Alberta has proved to be one the company's best ever. The well came on stream on Jan. 15 and, according to Scotia analyst Cameron Bean, produced a "booming" 2,908 barrels of oil a day and 2.1 million cubic feet of gas a day over its first 10 days. These and other results give Surge confidence in its first-half 2015 production guidance of 20,000 barrels a day. It did not make any changes to its dividend either. The monthly payout was halved to 2.5 cents from five cents in January, but still yields a generous 10.8 per cent.

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