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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery lost 99 cents to $59.95 on the New York Merc, its first time below $60 since July, 2009 (all figures in this para U.S.). Brent for January lost 56 cents to $63.68. Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $17.05 to WTI ($42.90), up from a discount of $18. Natural gas for January lost 7.2 cents to $3.63. The TSX energy index lost a fraction to close at 195.27.

Today brought a fresh round of cautious 2015 budgets. Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE), down 30 cents to $20.80 on 9.92 million shares, cut its year-over-year capital spending by about 15 per cent to a range of $2.5-billion to $2.7-billion. Unlike some of its peers, such as Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. (COS: $9.37), Trilogy Energy Corp. (TET: $7.64) and Baytex Energy Corp. (BTE: $15.33), which have lowered or eliminated their dividends, Cenovus says it is committed to maintaining its payout, which yields 5.1 per cent. This is particularly intriguing given that the 15-per-cent capex cut is rather mild. Baytex lowered its capex by 30 per cent, Canadian Oil Sands by 40 per cent and Trilogy by 42 per cent. Other large Canadian companies that have released budgets so far include the non-dividend-paying MEG Energy Corp. (MEG: $14.45), which cut capex by about one-third, as well as Vermilion Energy Inc. (VET: $45.99), which cut capex by about one-fifth and kept its dividend the same. It even said it would consider raising the dividend as commodity prices recover.

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