Energy Summary for Feb. 9, 2018

by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery lost $1.95 to $59.20 on the New York Merc, while Brent for April lost $2.02 to $62.79 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $30.70 to WTI ($28.50), unchanged. Natural gas for March lost 11 cents to $2.58. The TSX energy index lost a fraction to 167.86.

As the oil price correction continues, amid worries about a rising supply from the United States, Terry Meek's small Alberta producer, Point Loma Resources Ltd. (PLX), gained two cents to 26.5 cents on 4.51 million shares. This higher-than-usual volume included a 4.5-million-share cross at 27 cents by GMP Securities. Point Loma boasts of having cash and no debt, unlike many other oil and gas producers that are weighed down by their debt loads. Last month, Point Loma sold $3.45-million worth of shares at 33 cents, then it raised another $750,000 from its largest shareholder, Evenergy Company, which bought shares at 29 cents to maintain its 19.9-per-cent interest. Evenergy is part of the Zhongcheng Group, a Chinese oil refinery company. Point Loma will use its cash for its drilling, workover, reactivation and seismic programs in west-central Alberta. It aims to lift its production to 1,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day this quarter from 700 barrels a day as of Dec. 20, 2017. Despite all of this, Point Loma's stock has slid to today's 26.5 cents from 75 cents in the past year. Many other Canadian oil and gas producers have stock charts that look similar, largely because of commodity price volatility and continuing problems with transport bottlenecks. Owing to these factors, production boosts in themselves are not inspiring as much investor optimism as Canadian oil and gas producers might like.

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