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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery, the benchmark in North America, lost 16 cents to $56.99 on the New York Merc, while Brent for June, the international benchmark, lost 45 cents to $64.83 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select, Canada's heavy oil benchmark, traded at a discount of $11.55 to WTI ($45.44), unchanged. Natural gas for May, the international benchmark, lost 4.1 cents to $2.49. The TSX energy index lost 2.02 points to close at 237.07.

Paul Colborne's Surge Energy Inc. (SGY) bounded up 54 cents to $4.29 on 11.6 million shares. It has agreed to sell all of its assets in southeast Saskatchewan and Manitoba, currently producing 4,750 barrels of oil equivalent a day, for $430-million. The proceeds will initially go toward reducing its net debt (which was about $520-million after accounting for a couple of deals in January and February) and then to finance capital spending. One spending priority will be the Upper Shaunavon discovery in southwest Saskatchewan, which is about a year old now and is already estimated by Surge to contain 250 million barrels of OOIP (original oil in place). The company bought its Shaunavon assets in the summer of 2013 from Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE: $23.23) to gain access to the Lower Shaunavon. At the time this was thought to be much larger, at 230 million barrels of OOIP compared with 20 million to 30 million for the Upper Shaunavon. In April, 2014, Surge announced a successful discovery well in the Upper Shaunavon, kicking off a program that, 10 wells later, has boosted the OOIP estimate by about 10 times. The company has decided to narrow its focus on the play and is selling some of its assets elsewhere.

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