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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery lost $2.11 to $47.93 on the New York Merc, while Brent for February lost $2.01 to $51.10 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $15.35 to WTI ($32.58), up from a discount of $15.85. Natural gas for February added 5.6 cents to $2.93. The TSX energy index lost 4.45 points to close at 205.55.

After a quiet two weeks on the news front, several companies have come out with their 2015 outlooks. One of those companies was Crescent Point Energy Corp. (CPG), up 27 cents to $25.13 on seven million shares. It plans to spend $1.45-billion, a 28-per-cent decrease from $2-billion in 2014. Even with the decrease, it expects to increase production to 152,500 barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2015 from 140,000 in 2014 (although this is still lower than the current level of over 155,000 barrels a day), and it kept its 23-cent monthly dividend intact, despite the generous yield of 11 per cent. Crescent Point has never cut its dividend. The company was founded in 2001 by a group including Paul Colborne, then president and CEO, and Mr. Saxberg, then vice-president of production. Two years later, it reorganized as a distribution-paying trust, at which point Mr. Saxberg took day-to-day charge (Mr. Colborne stayed on as a director). Production was then 7,000 barrels a day and the distribution was 17 cents a month. Over the years, Crescent Point steadily increased its production (often through acquisitions) as well as its distribution, which reached 23 cents a month in June, 2008. Three months later the market crashed. The stock went as low as $18.13 in late 2008, taking the distribution yield past 15 per cent, but Crescent Point never made a cut. It even took advantage of the chaos in 2009, when oil prices were even lower than today, to buy a couple of companies and a group of assets in Saskatchewan, its main producing area. (That was also the year it turned back into a company.) Now that oil is getting back to its 2009 levels, Crescent Point is full of reassurances that its finances and dividend are in good shape. Mr. Saxberg even hinted to Bloomberg last month that more acquisitions could be on the horizon. Certainly there are plenty of bargains for the taking.

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