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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery lost $3.41 to $91.16 on the New York Merc, the biggest drop in almost two years, as traders fretted about higher global supplies (all figures in this para U.S.). Brent for November lost $2.53 to $94.67. Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $14.50 to WTI ($76.66), unchanged. Natural gas for November lost 3.3 cents to $4.12. The TSX energy index lost 2.42 points to close at 292.35.

Dale Shwed's Crew Energy Inc. (CR) added 19 cents to $9.89 on 4.85 million shares, its heaviest volume since May. Today is the scheduled date for closing its $150-million sale of the Princess asset in southeast Alberta. (Closing was confirmed in an after-market press release.) Crew announced this sale a month ago and said it would use the proceeds to speed up development at its core B.C. Montney assets. Specifically, the proceeds are enough to finance construction of a 60-million-cubic-foot-a-day gas plant at West Septimus and drill 20 Montney wells to fill it. This will be the first of three planned gas plants Crew plans to build before the end of 2018. At that point, it wants to be producing 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day from the Montney, up from around 12,800 in the second quarter. Princess produces about 3,650 barrels a day. Crew acquired it in 2008 by buying Gentry Resources, which at the time was producing about 2,100 barrels a day from the asset. Crew increased that to 12,000 toward the end of 2011. High operating costs and declining production, combined with the company's increasing attraction to the Montney, made Princess less and less desirable, and even though analysts estimated the asset's value at $160-million to $200-million, Crew was content to let it go for less. It did not discuss the implications of the sale in its press release. In its second quarter financials, it said that if it sold Princess, this would result in an after-tax hit to net income of $200-million to $250-million.

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