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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery added 21 cents to $42.74 on the New York Merc, while Brent for August added 40 cents to $45.22 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $11.10 to WTI ($31.64), unchanged. Natural gas for July was unchanged at $2.89. The TSX energy index added a fraction to close at 170.02.

Alberta Montney producer Birchcliff Energy Ltd. (BIR), a major investment of the billionaire Seymour Schulich (who owns 40 million of its 264 million shares), added 15 cents to $5.73 on 2.19 million shares. This was a nice up day for the company (and Mr. Schulich), which has spent most of this year falling from over $9. President and chief executive officer Jeff Tonken headed to BNN yesterday to try to reverse the decline. "Our business has never been stronger," he trumpeted. He noted that his interview marked the one-year anniversary of a major transaction for Birchcliff. On June 21, 2016, the company agreed to buy the Gordondale Montney assets of EnCana Corp. (ECA: $10.91) for $625-million. The acquisition was accompanied by two financings at $6.25 a share for total proceeds of $690-million. (Mr. Schulich, incidentally, participated for nearly $19-million.) As a result of all this, Birchcliff has reduced its debt compared with a year ago, has achieved higher-than-ever production and has become "very profitable," said Mr. Tonken. Yet the stock has nonetheless gone down. "I'm very unhappy with my stock price," said Mr. Tonken, "but I know my business strategy holds together and I can execute it."

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