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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery lost five cents to $53.72 on the New York Merc, quietly capping off an anything-but-quiet 2016, during which it has more than doubled from the mid-$20 lows it reached in January and February (all figures in this para U.S.). Brent for March added 68 cents to $56.82, another remarkable climb out of last winter's lows. Western Canadian Select traded at an unchanged discount of $15.95 to WTI ($37.77). Natural gas for February lost eight cents to $3.72. The TSX energy index lost 1.53 points to close at 220.91.

Despite the recent dramatic rise in oil prices, the end of 2016 nonetheless brings the end of one of the worst years for the oil and gas industry in decades. According to the oil patch bankruptcy monitor published by the law firm Haynes & Boone, 70 explorers and producers across North America declared bankruptcy in 2016, a nearly 60-per-cent increase over the 44 that declared bankruptcy in 2015. This year's filings also saw far more debt involved: $56.8-billion (U.S.) in cumulative secured and unsecured debt, more than triple last year's $17.3-billion (U.S.). Eighteen of the 114 companies listed by Haynes & Boone made their filings in Canada. Canadian and U.S. bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings are different, as a law firm would be well aware, so these numbers do not fully show the extent of the meltdown. One example of this was in the news just yesterday. The formerly TSX-listed Lightstream Resources Ltd., although it does not appear in the bankruptcy monitor report, capitulated to its $1.6-billion debt months ago, and announced last night that it has completed the sale of substantially all of its business as part of a sales process under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. The buyer is a private company owned by Lightstream's former noteholders, called Ridgeback Resources Inc. Ridgeback has now hired all of Lightstream's old management and given its old president and chief executive officer, John Wright, a seat on the board of directors. That is a happier ending than many shareholders got, particularly any who bought in 2009, when the stock traded at a high of nearly $36. It was halted three months ago at 11.5 cents and delisted a month later. Now it will say farewell for good.

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