Energy Summary for April 3, 2018

by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery gained 50 cents to $63.51 on the New York Merc, while Brent for June gained 48 cents to $68.12 (all figures in this para U.S.). There is no open interest on Western Canadian Select futures contracts; they last traded at a discount of $23.40 to WTI. Natural gas for May gained one cent to $2.70. The TSX energy index gained 3.83 points to 177.38.

Many oil and gas producers closed up. Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE) gained 52 cents to $11.33 on 6.98 million shares, Raging River Exploration Inc. (RRX) inched up eight cents to $5.99 on 4.69 million shares and Bonavista Energy Corp. (BNP) rose three cents to $1.22 on 4.15 million shares.

Frank Giustra's Pentanova Energy Corp. (PNO) rallied 2.5 cents to 16 cents on five million shares, following the company's entreaty to investors to calm down. On Wednesday last week, Pentanova shared that it had finished drilling the Istanbul-1 well on its Maria Conchita gas block in Colombia. It said the next steps were to perforate, complete and then test the well over a two-week period. In the three trading days since Pentanova released this brief update, its stock fell 9.5 cents to 13.5 cents. Some of the drop was doubtless influenced by the generally gloomy outlook for oil and gas, as oil lost more than $2 (U.S.) over the same three-day period. As well, Pentanova's shareholders might have panicked, thinking that no results meant bad results. This morning, the company repeated that it had not yet begun testing the well. It is still performing completion work.

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