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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery added 36 cents to $47.77 on the New York Merc, while Brent for October added 47 cents to $49.63 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $14.65 to WTI ($33.12), down from a discount of $14.55. Natural gas for September added eight cents to $2.76. The TSX energy index added a fraction to close at 200.96.

Colombia-focused Parex Resources Inc. (PXT) added 31 cents to $15.82 on 487,800 shares. It did not release any news, but one of its joint venturers, GeoPark, has declared another victory at their LLA-34 block in the Llanos basin. Their Jacana-5 appraisal well has been drilled to 11,467 feet, has tested at 2,500 barrels of oil a day and has been placed on production. The results are significant for two reasons. One, the well expands the known size of the Jacana field, given that it was drilled 780 metres north of the Jacana-3 well, which itself had extended the field to the northwest. Two, like Jacana-3, the Jacana-5 well was drilled below 11,000 feet without finding the oil-water contact (the lowest point at which hydrocarbons occur). Parex's reserves evaluator had expected the contact to be found around 11,000 feet. The fact that none has been found is a good sign for future reserve additions. Certainly Parex should be able to upgrade the field's existing reserves thanks to the results of Jacana-3 and Jacana-5, as well as Jacana-4 (which was drilled before Jacana-5 and extended the field to the west). Scotia Capital analyst Gavin Wylie, in a research note two weeks ago (before the Jacana-5 results arrived), estimated that five million to 10 million barrels of net possible reserves could be moved into the proven or proven plus probable category by year-end. Given that Parex expects to produce a total of 11 million barrels this year -- its full-year target is 29,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day -- "... the success at Jacana alone implies nearly 100-per-cent production replacement," marvelled Mr. Wylie. He added that Parex still has plenty of wells left in this year's program that could further boost reserves. These include three development wells at the Tigana field right beside Jacana, up to seven potential wells at the Aguas Blancas field, which is in the Magdalena basin, and a total of eight exploration wells in various areas. Excitement about this year's program has helped Parex's stock more than double to $15.82 from a mid-January low of $7.73.

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