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 August delivery lost $1.55 to $48.33 on the New York Merc, while Brent for August lost 93 cents to $49.68 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $13.55 to WTI ($34.78), unchanged. Natural gas for August added 6.1 cents to $2.924. The TSX energy index added a fraction to close at 189.43.

Heavy oil producer Gear Energy Ltd. (GXE) lost three cents to 61 cents on 308,000 shares, giving back some of the five cents it added yesterday after closing a $20-million bought deal of shares at 70 cents. SEDI shows that eight insiders bought 1.26 million of the shares. Gear announced the financing on June 7, when it also announced that it would take over Striker Exploration Corp. (SKX: $1.39). Though Gear is issuing shares to acquire Striker, it wanted to raise cash anyway to reduce debt before embarking on a busy drill program. That program began last week, according to the latest monthly letter from president and chief executive officer Ingram Gillmore, who published it yesterday after the close. He said Gear will be able to finance the drilling using cash flow. "Which means that the reduced debt should stay reduced while we start to grow production again!" he exclaimed. Boosting production will be a nice change of pace for Gear, whose output was just 3,900 barrels of oil equivalent a day last month, down sharply from over 7,200 barrels a day in late 2014. The drill program should push production back up, as of course will the takeover of Striker, which is producing about 2,000 barrels a day. Mr. Gillmore said Gear expects to close the takeover on July 26.

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