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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery lost 82 cents to $50.34 on the New York Merc, while Brent for April added a cent to $60.22 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $13.35 to WTI ($36.99), up from a discount of $13.50. Natural gas for March added 11.7 cents to $2.95. The TSX energy index lost 1.52 points to close at 227.49.

The oil patch saw another wave of cuts. Baytex Energy Corp. (BTE), down 31 cents to $22.24 on 2.55 million shares, snipped $75-million from its 2015 budget yesterday after the close, bringing it down to a range of $500-million to $575-million. The production target is now 84,000 to 88,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day instead of 88,000 to 92,000 barrels a day. Most of the budget, and about half of the production, is focused on the Eagle Ford shale in Texas. This became a core area for Baytex last June, when it acquired Aurora Oil & Gas for $1.9-billion cash and $900-million in debt. Its third quarter results showed that production from the Aurora assets had already increased by more than 20 per cent since June and was already contributing more than one-third of the company's total output. Baytex said this was better than it had ever hoped. Although the deal was evidently working out, oil prices tumbled to spoil the party. Facing low prices and higher-than-usual debt levels (as a result of the acquisition), Baytex set a modest 2015 budget in December and also hacked its monthly dividend to 10 cents from 24 cents, finding the 17.5-per-cent yield a little too steep for its liking. The new dividend yields 5.4 per cent and was not mentioned in yesterday's update. One important update, given the debt situation, is that Baytex's bankers have agreed to relax their covenants. Investors still seemed mildly disappointed.

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