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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery added 85 cents to $50.59 on the New York Merc, while Brent for December added 91 cents to $52.68 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $14.00 to WTI ($36.59), unchanged. Natural gas for November added one cent to $3.04. The TSX energy index added a fraction to close at 205.80.

Clay Riddell's Paramount Resources Ltd. (POU) touched a 52-week high of $17.22 before settling at $16.93, up 93 cents, on 1.7 million shares. It has added over $2.30 in the last week, amid drilling activity, insider optimism and, yesterday, a nod from Moody's Investors Service. Moody's upgraded Paramount to B3, three notches above the previous level (though still in junk territory). Its outlook is "stable." The upgrade "reflects improved liquidity from the sale of Paramount's Kakwa Montney assets to Seven Generations," said Moody's, referring to the recent sale of the company's formerly core Alberta assets to Seven Generations Energy Ltd. (VII: $31.24) for $2.1-billion worth of cash, shares and debt assumptions. Paramount then sold $735-million worth of the shares it received. As a result, says Moody's, the company has "very good liquidity" and "will be able to fund its growth capex over the next two years without increasing debt." Moody's nonetheless has some doubts as to whether the growth capex will achieve Paramount's desired results. The company has said that it wants to boost production from its new core area, the 4,700-barrel-a-day Karr/Gold Creek Montney, to 25,000 barrels by mid-2017. "Given Paramount's historic challenge in meeting expectations, Moody's views the growth plan cautiously," says the ratings agency. It is doubtless thinking of 2015, when Paramount's failure to achieve a promised midyear production rate of 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day -- instead it barely cracked 50,000 -- helped make it the worst performer that year on the S&P/TSX Capped Energy Index, with the stock dropping to around $6 at the end of the year from over $30 at the start. It has rallied marvellously this year and is now hard at work on its new production goal. This week alone, it has drilled one well and licensed eight more, according to public data. The above-mentioned Mr. Riddell, Paramount's executive chairman, seems bullish. Last week, he bought 518,400 shares at $14.81, boosting his holdings to 47.5 million of the company's 106.2 million shares.

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