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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery added 27 cents to $45.41 on the New York Merc, while Brent for September added 36 cents to $46.76 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $14.25 to WTI ($31.16), unchanged. Natural gas for August added 2.4 cents to $2.801. The TSX energy index added 2.61 points to close at 190.36.

Colombia-focused Parex Resources Inc. (PXT) added 25 cents to $13.04 on 533,600 shares, after releasing the first results of this year's drill program. Excitement about this program has helped send the stock up from a low of $7.15 in January. Parex previously laid out plans for both development drilling and exploration drilling in 2016, much as it did in 2015, when it was one of few companies taking any exploration risks. Last year's exploration program resulted in multiple discoveries and helped boost the company's reserves. This year's drill program began last quarter, and now the first results are in. They are not wholly positive, unfortunately. Parex's first exploration well of the year, Jaruki-1 on the Cabrestero block, showed disappointing results and has been abandoned. That well was always fairly high risk. Another exploration well at Cabrestero, Bacano-1, faced mechanical problems and had to be abandoned. Parex plans to redrill the Bacano prospect later this year.

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