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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery added 93 cents to $50.52 on the New York Merc, while Brent for April added $1.48 to $61.02 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $14.35 to WTI ($36.17), down from a discount of $13.60. Natural gas for April added 1.4 cents to $2.71. The TSX energy index added 2.31 points to close at 222.43.

Whitecap Energy Inc. (WCP) added 76 cents to $14 on 5.4 million shares, on a wealth of good news. The company has increased its credit facilities to $1.2-billion from $1-billion, thanks to higher year-end 2014 reserves compared with year-end 2013. As well, it produced 39,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in February, up from 37,000 barrels a day at the beginning of the year. On top of all that, it has received regulatory approval for a waterflood program at the Elnora Nisku pool in Alberta. The pool's production has been restricted to 2,000 net barrels a day. As a result of the waterflood approval, this restriction will now be lifted, and Whitecap has said it should then be able boost net production to 5,800 barrels a day with almost no capital spending. It had figured this would happen in July, but today's update says the program will be fully implemented by early May. This means it will have a greater effect than expected on full-year production. Despite this (and the good February results), Whitecap is leaving its full-year production target at 36,000 barrels a day. It has already lowered that target twice -- from 40,000 in December and from 37,500 in January -- so perhaps it does not want to find itself in that position again if the good news is just a fluke.

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