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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery lost 71 cents to $46.26 on the New York Merc, while Brent for October lost 92 cents to $48.32 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $14.35 to WTI ($31.91), up from a discount of $14.55. Natural gas for October added one cent to $2.88. The TSX energy index added a fraction to close at 199.11.

Alberta oil producer Athabasca Oil Corp. (ATH) added two cents to $1.26 on 1.19 million shares, after receiving $139-million from Brion Energy as the final payment related to the $1.18-billion sale of the Dover oil sands project. The sale closed two years ago, but only $600-million was paid at the time; the rest was paid in instalments in 2015 and 2016. Athabasca said at the time that the sale would provide ample cash to develop its core Kaybob Duvernay assets and Hangingstone thermal project. Since then, Hangingstone has started production, the Duvernay has attracted a joint venturer (Murphy Oil) and the Placid Montney assets (also owned partly with Murphy) have risen to the top of Athabasca's priority list. Last month, Athabasca boosted its Placid budget to $102-million from $47-million and started a 12-well drill program for the second half of the year. Thanks to this more aggressive program, the assets are now expected to produce 7,000 net barrels a day in 2017 and 14,000 net barrels a day in 2020, according to a recent presentation on Athabasca's website. (The company had previously pegged the 2017 and 2020 production levels at 5,500 net barrels a day and 12,000 net barrels a day, respectively. By comparison, the assets produced just under 3,000 net barrels in the second quarter.) Athabasca also has high production hopes for the Duvernay assets once Murphy starts drilling this fall. Production from these assets was about 2,800 net barrels a day in the second quarter but is expected to reach 9,000 net barrels a day within five years. As for Hangingstone, which was producing about 9,000 barrels a day this spring, Athabasca plans to boost production to 12,000 barrels a day by year-end and then spend "minimal" maintenance capital to hold production flat for several years.

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