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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery added 42 cents to $46.91 on the New York Merc, while Brent for October added 71 cents to $49.83 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $14.05 to WTI ($32.86), up from a discount of $14.25. Natural gas for September lost two cents to $2.61. The TSX energy index lost 1.23 points to close at 199.66.

TORC Oil & Gas Ltd. (TOG) was unchanged at $8.37 on 1.86 million shares, holding on to the 41 cents it added yesterday after closing $111.3-million in financings to help finance an expansion in southeast Saskatchewan. The company issued a total of 15.8 million shares at $7.08. Over 3.5 million of the shares went for $25-million to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which owns about one-quarter of TORC's 179 million shares. The other shares were issued through an $86.3-million public offering, which included the full exercise of the underwriters' overallotment option. SEDI shows that four directors and officers participated in the public offering to the tune of 264,000 shares. TORC will use the proceeds of the financings mainly to buy $89.5-million worth of Saskatchewan oil assets, producing 1,120 barrels of oil equivalent a day, from a seller that analysts have confirmed to be Zargon Oil & Gas Ltd. (ZAR: $0.78). In a research note this morning, TD Securities analyst Juan Jarrah wrote that Zargon has not been able to spend much on the assets over the years, so there are "plenty of opportunities" for them to blossom under TORC's tender care. Scotia Capital analyst Patrick Bryden, meanwhile, likes the assets' low decline rate, which he pegged at 9 per cent. Their addition means that TORC's overall decline rate should drop to 23 per cent from 25 per cent, calculated Mr. Bryden. (Low decline rates are favourable, particularly for dividend payers such as TORC, which pays a two-cent monthly dividend that yields 2.9 per cent.)

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