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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery lost 57 cents to $66.81 on the New York Merc, while Brent for January lost 28 cents to $69.64 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $16.15 to WTI ($50.66), unchanged. Natural gas for January lost 15.6 cents to $3.64. The TSX energy index lost 11.44 points to close at 219.31.

Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. (COS) dipped as low as $10.72, its lowest level in about 10 years (adjusted for a 1:5 rollback in 2006), before settling down $2.15 to $10.98 on 20.5 million shares. It is cutting its quarterly dividend to 20 cents from 35 cents. Investors have been fretting over a possible cut for over a month. At the end of October, the former dividend's yield was approaching 8 per cent, and it was 10.6 per cent yesterday. (With the new dividend, the yield is 7.3 per cent, so the gloomy chatter has not entirely stopped.) Canadian Oil Sands' dividend has long moved in tune with the times. In 2008, the quarterly payout started at 55 cents and was raised three times in seven months, closing out the summer at $1.25. Postcrash, it went to 75 cents in October and then all the way to 15 cents at the beginning of 2009. A series of increases took it back to 50 cents in 2010, then reductions in 2011 took it to 20 cents, and then there were more raises. The 35-cent quarterly payout had been in place since April, 2012. Given the frequency of the previous changes, as well as many production problems this year and last, it is almost surprising that a chop has not happened before now. Canadian Oil Sands' only asset is its non-operated 36.7-per-cent interest in Syncrude Canada. The Syncrude project is one of the oldest in the oil sands and has become increasingly prone to hiccups. Its production guidance was cut three times in 2013, and then another three times this year. To put the slumping profits in perspective, Canadian Oil Sands earned $87-million in the third quarter of 2014, down sharply from $246-million in the same period last year.

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