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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery added four cents to $30.48 on the New York Merc, while Brent for February lost 55 cents to $30.31 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $14.95 to WTI ($15.53), down from a discount of $14.80. Natural gas for February added 1.2 cents to $2.269. The TSX energy index lost 2.72 points to close at 140.24.

Clay Riddell's Paramount Resources Ltd. (POU) lost 42 cents to $3.94 on 2.46 million shares. It had no news and has not released any in over two months, but it did get a smack yesterday from Dundee Capital Markets, which lowered its price target on the stock all the way to $5.75 from $20. Paramount traded above $20 as recently as August, and traded over $66 just 16 months ago, but it has had a painful fall from grace. August was particularly bad, as Paramount was forced to admit difficulties in getting its much-hyped new gas plant in Alberta to run at full capacity, which meant that it would not possibly be able to boost production as planned to 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. Production in the third quarter was about 50,000 barrels a day and the fourth quarter is not forecast to be any better. As for this year's forecasts, Paramount has yet to release any. Investors are hoping for an update on them soon, as well as any updates on Paramount's apparent sale process for its mid-stream assets. Paramount reportedly hired RBC over a month ago to help find possible buyers, as Bloomberg said on Dec. 7, noting that first-round bids had already been submitted. Sale proceeds could go toward ramping up production or paying down the company's roughly $1.8-billion net debt.

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