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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery, the benchmark in North America, lost 30 cents to $93.35 on the New York Merc, while Brent for October, the benchmark in Europe, added 36 cents to $102.65 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select, Canada's heavy oil benchmark, traded at a discount of $$17.50 to WTI ($75.85), unchanged. Natural gas for September, the international benchmark, added 9.7 cents to $3.93. The TSX energy index added 1.89 points to close at 321.35.

George Fink's Pine Cliff Energy Ltd. (PNE) crossed $2 for the first time before closing at $1.99, up two cents, on 6.66 million shares. The company is working to close its biggest asset acquisition ever. Since the "revitalization of [its] business strategy" in early 2012, it has chosen to expand through acquisitions in its core Alberta and Saskatchewan areas, spending $10-million to $55-million at a time. It has completed six such acquisitions and taken production to 7,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day now from 100 barrels a day in early 2012. Once it closes a $100-million acquisition from Nexen by Nov. 1, it expects to be producing over 12,000 barrels a day. Almost all of this is dry gas. Pine Cliff does not hedge and has been enjoying the recent rise in gas prices, which are around $3.80 now, up from less than $2 in early 2012. (These are Alberta settlement prices, not New York.) Prices have weakened lately because of increasing supply and milder-than-usual summer weather, but president and chief executive officer Phil Hodge expects happy days ahead. Last month, he told BNN that over the next five years, he sees a sustainable gas price of close to $5. He added that Pine Cliff can still make money at $3, so even if gas prices do not behave as he thinks, the company should be all right. It does have a wealthy backer. Mr. Fink is chairman of both Pine Cliff and Bonterra Energy Corp. (BNE: $64.34), and all the directors of Pine Cliff except Mr. Hodge are also directors of Bonterra. The two companies also share office space and work together in the Carrot Creek/Edson area of Alberta. As well, Pine Cliff owns over 200,000 shares of Bonterra, providing about $60,000 a month in dividends. It plans to keep looking for more gassy acquisitions. New vice-president of operations Terry McNeill seems confident. He joined Pine Cliff in April from AltaGas and bought his first shares last week, acquiring 21,000 at $1.67 on Aug. 18.

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