18:31:59 EDT Thu 28 Mar 2024
Enter Symbol
or Name
USA
CA



Energy Summary for week ended April 17, 2015

2015-04-17 21:08 ET - Market Summary

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 May delivery lost 97 cents to $55.74 on the New York Merc today, while Brent for June lost 53 cents to $63.45, both slipping slightly after a week of impressive gains (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $12 to WTI ($43.74), unchanged. Natural gas for May lost five cents to $2.63. The TSX energy index added a fraction of a point to close at 239.96.

Clay Riddell's Perpetual Energy Inc. (PMT: $1.10) started the week by announcing a $21-million sale of royalty assets and related seismic data in east-central Alberta. The proceeds will go toward reducing its net debt. Perpetual has been working on this goal for years, and has become quite practised at attracting interest in its assets. Over two dozen transactions took place in 2012 and 2013 and helped bring net debt down to $377-million at year-end 2013 from $527-million at year-end 2011. The year 2014 brought more deals, most notably a summer agreement with Freehold Royalties, which bought a royalty interest for $50-million and made a $70-million farm-in commitment on Perpetual's assets in the East Edson area. This helped bring year-end 2014 debt down to $330-million. Perpetual is still chipping away at it, and has announced two significant deals in the last four weeks alone: the $21-million royalty sale announced this week, and the sale of its West Edson interest to joint venturer Tourmaline Oil Corp. (TOU: $42.40) for 6.75 million Tourmaline shares. (Perpetual would rather hold on to these shares than sell them for debt repayment, but the option of selling is there, as the press release pointed out.) News of the Tourmaline deal sent Perpetual's shares bounding up 24 cents to $1.20 on March 13. The smaller sale this week got a more muted reaction. The stock opened Monday at $1.10 and closed today at the same price. Among analysts, TD Securities' Aaron Bilkoski called the sale "positive" but opined (somewhat awkwardly) that he remains "challenged to see Perpetual spend/grow its way out of its balance sheet challenges."

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

© 2024 Canjex Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.


Reader Comments - Comments are open to paying subscribers of Stockwatch and unmoderated, although libelous remarks, obscene language and impersonations may be deleted. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Stockwatch.
For information regarding Canadian libel law, please view the University of Ottawa's FAQ regarding Defamation and SLAPPs.


Comments for this item are closed