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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery added $1.81 to $42.17 on the New York Merc, while Brent for June added $1.86 to $44.69 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $14.20 to WTI ($27.97), up from a discount of $14.30. Natural gas for May added 9.2 cents to $2.004. The TSX energy index added 8.87 points to close at 180.94.

Enerplus Corp. (ERF) added 54 cents to $6.13, its first time above $6 in four months, on 3.33 million shares. Yesterday evening it announced an agreement to sell $95.5-million worth of non-core assets in northwest Alberta to an unidentified buyer. This is its second major sale this year, coming on the heels of February's $183-million sale of Alberta gas assets to a seller widely assumed to be Tourmaline Oil Corp. (TOU: $27.44). Enerplus also completed a smaller sale of Alberta gas assets for about $10-million around that same time. All told, it has sold $288.5-million worth of non-core Alberta assets this year, using the proceeds to reduce debt, which was $1.2-billion as of Dec. 31. Enerplus warned in February that it may have to seek covenant relief toward the end of the year if low oil prices persist. Besides asset sales, other recent efforts to bolster its balance sheet include cutting the three-cent monthly dividend to one cent (for a yield of 1.9 per cent) and lowering the budget to $200-million from $350-million, both of which also happened in February. The lower budget, combined with the asset sales that had taken place up to then, led Enerplus to reduce its production guidance to a range of 90,000 to 94,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day from a range of 100,000 to 105,000 barrels a day. Enerplus said yesterday evening that it is keeping its production guidance at 90,000 to 94,000 barrels a day even though the sale it has just announced will remove about 2,300 barrels a day from this year's total. It cited "continued strong operational performance" from its assets. These are in three core areas: the Williston oil basin in North Dakota and Montana, the Marcellus gas play in Pennsylvania, and various oil plays in Western Canada. Most of this year's budget is going to North Dakota and the Marcellus. The U.S. assets as a group are expected to contribute about three-quarters of this year's production.

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