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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery lost $1.59 to $77.19 on the New York Merc, while Brent for December lost $1.96 to $82.82 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $16.90 to WTI ($60.29), down from a discount of $15.40. Natural gas for December added 8.3 cents to $4.12. The TSX energy index lost 10.59 points to close at 243.78.

Talisman Energy Inc. (TLM) reached an intraday low of $6.005, its lowest level since 2002, before settling down 82 cents to $6.10 on 8.52 million shares. The market did not like Talisman's third quarter results even though they showed higher profits than analysts predicted. The consensus was that the company would break even on a per-share basis. Instead, the company earned 41 U.S. cents a share, up from a loss of five U.S. cents a share in the same period last year. Even excluding gains on commodity derivatives and other items, profit was still five cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters. This good news was offset by lower cash flow and the possibility that Talisman will face significant writedowns at its troubled North Sea unit before the end of the year. Analysts and investors were further disappointed that the release contained little information on two important topics. "[There] was no update to the [asset] disposition process or CEO search," wrote CIBC World Markets analyst Arthur Grayfer, with Desjardins Securities analyst Justin Bouchard adding, "With no updates on the strategic review or the CEO search, we are growing more cautious on the potential for additional material asset sales given current commodity prices." Talisman said in February that it wanted to sell $2-billion of non-core assets by mid-2015. It has accomplished about one-10th of its goal. Meanwhile, CEO Hal Kvisle, who has said he will not stay past the end of this year, has not provided any information on a successor. Talisman did not address either issue in its press release but finally did so in a conference call this afternoon. Mr. Kvisle said the CEO search is taking place at the board level and there is little he can say about it. As for asset sales, he predicted "one or two announcements" before year-end. One of them, presumably, will be about mid-stream assets in the Pennsylvania Marcellus shale, where Talisman is working out the "final details" with a potential buyer. Mr. Kvisle did not provide any hints about the second announcement, but it might involve Alberta Duvernay assets, for which bids were due at the end of September.

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