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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

U.S. markets were closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery added 27 cents to $52.64 in electronic trading on the New York Merc, while Brent for March added 43 cents to $55.88 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $13.60 to WTI ($39.04), up from a discount of $14.05. Natural gas for February added six cents to $3.48. The TSX energy index lost a fraction to close at 211.92.

Alberta Montney producer RMP Energy Inc. (RMP) lost three cents to 72 cents on 1.38 million shares, after announcing that president and chief executive officer John Ferguson will be retiring at the end of February. A successor is to be named shortly.

Mr. Ferguson took charge of RMP nearly six years ago, as part of the arrangement that saw the company go public in mid-2011 through the reverse takeover of Orleans Energy, which was mostly gassy but had intriguing light oil assets in the Waskahigan area of the Alberta Montney. RMP was fairly young at the time. Up until 2008, its managers had been busy with Rider Resources, where they increased production to 11,500 barrels of oil equivalent a day from 2,000 before selling the company to NuVista Energy Ltd. (NVA: $6.63) for $560-million. Before Rider, they were at Meota Resources, increasing its 3,100-barrel-a-day production to 11,400 barrels a day by the time it was sold for $340-million to Provident Energy Trust in 2002. Before Meota was Poco Petroleums, which saw its production triple over seven years, to 120,000 barrels a day, before it was sold to Burlington Resources in 1999 for $3.2-billion. The president and CEO of Rider, Meota and Poco -- whose initials gave rise to the name RMP -- was Craig Stewart. When RMP went public, Mr. Stewart became (and remains) chairman, while Mr. Ferguson, who had been chief financial officer and vice-president of finance at the three previous companies, was put in charge.

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