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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery lost four cents to $41.10 on the New York Merc, while Brent for September lost two cents to $42.68 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $14.60 to WTI ($26.50), down from a discount of $14.55. Natural gas for September lost 1.6 cents to $2.857. The TSX energy index added 2.05 points to close at 187.13.

Baytex Energy Corp. (BTE) lost 40 cents to $5.81 on 13.4 million shares, after releasing slightly better-than-predicted second quarter financials, but setting a grimmer-than-expected outlook for the rest of the year. Production and cash flow during the quarter came to 70,031 barrels of oil equivalent a day and 39 cents a share, compared with analysts' predictions of 69,600 barrels a day and 35 cents a share. Production was down sharply from the same period a year earlier, particularly in Western Canada, where year-over-year output slumped to around 31,700 barrels a day from 45,200. In the company's other core area, the Texas Eagle Ford, year-over-year production edged down to about 38,300 barrels a day from 39,500. Baytex has been devoting essentially all of its spending to the Eagle Ford for the last year. The lack of activity in Canada has taken a steep toll on production, as has the decision in the first quarter of 2016 to shut in about 7,500 barrels a day of uneconomic Canadian production. Baytex says it had brought about 6,500 barrels a day of that shut-in production back on-line by June 30 and will bring the rest back over the second half of the year. Investors had been expecting virtually all of the shut-in production to have been brought back by now. As for the Eagle Ford, Baytex is slowing down its activity noticeably. It had six drill rigs running in the first quarter of the year, and told investors that the number might go down to five or "maybe even four throughout the second and third quarters," as chief executive officer Jim Bowzer stated during a conference call in May. Today it said it is running just three rigs.

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