You all are surprisingly quiet, after waiting for the 2008 report. It's a little disappointing, but we seem to have a steady hand at the helm ... treading water while others are going under.

New stuff: More hedging, surprisingly disappointing news from MRC, cancellation of some credit facilities that will need to be replaced (possibly not a bad thing).

Considerable problems with currency issues.

Funny item: $15.7M of royalties on a $26.6M net loss year.

Then there's this, can someone explain it in simpler terms? I'm confused about the 270% increase in production increasing expenses. They make it sound like increasing production is a bad thing.

"These include foreign exchange (2006 - $4 million loss; 2007 - $27 million gain; 2008 - $12 million loss) attributable to the fluctuations in the rate of exchange between the Canadian and U.S. dollar in translating the company's U.S. dollar-denominated debt and depletion and depreciation expense, as it increased 81 percent in 2008 (to $56 million) from lower amounts reported in 2006 ($33 million) and 2007 ($31 million). The primary driver for the increase in depletion and depreciation in 2008 was the 270 percent increase in upstream production volumes, as noted above."

I'll be glad when things turn around.

-bbq