This item is part of Stockwatch's value added news feed and is only available to Stockwatch subscribers.

Here is a sample of this item:

by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery lost 80 cents to $41.71 on the New York Merc, while Brent for January lost 55 cents to $44.86 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $14.65 to WTI ($27.06), unchanged. Natural gas for December added 1.7 cents to $2.205. The TSX energy index lost 2.55 points to close at 174.64.

PRD Energy Inc. (PRD), an unfortunate promotion of former Canaccord Capital president and chief operating officer Michael Greenwood, was unchanged at 5.5 cents on 537,800 shares. It has hired a liquidator for its subsidiaries in Germany. This country has been PRD's sole focus for about six years. It did not expect many difficulties: the idea was to focus on past-producing but underdeveloped fields, and use modern technology to bring them back to life. Yet in all its years in the country, it was able to drill only one well, in 2013. That well flowed a bit of oil but was plagued by mechanical problems and an out-of-control budget. PRD made plans to drill more wells, but never actually did, and by July, 2015, it had given up. It shut down its German operations and started a "strategic alternatives review" (code for putting itself up for sale). By then, its stock -- which had gone as high as $1.56 in 2013 as investors awaited drill results -- was just 7.5 cents. This was not good news for Mr. Greenwood, who holds nearly 25.6 million of the company's 143.9 million shares. Many of those were bought back when PRD was a sub-30-cent mining junior called Pacific Rodera. Mr. Greenwood caused a minor sensation when he became the control person, chairman and CEO of Pacific Rodera in late 2006 and early 2007, not long after retiring from Canaccord. (The outgoing CEO, former hockey player David (Tiger) Williams, likened Mr. Greenwood's interest to "getting Wayne Gretzky for your peewee hockey team.") With Mr. Greenwood in charge, Pacific Rodera turned away from mining and focused on oil and gas in the Northwest Territories for a while, but that did not really go anywhere (in part because there was almost nowhere for oil and gas to go; infrastructure was very lacking). The company shifted its attention to Germany and changed its name to PRD in 2010.

The remainder is available to Stockwatch subscribers.
Sign-up for a FREE 30-day Stockwatch subscription and SEE NO ADS