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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery, the benchmark in North America, lost 96 cents to $43.88 on the New York Merc, while Brent for April, the international benchmark, lost $1.07 to $53.94 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select, Canada's heavy oil benchmark, traded at a discount of $14.35 to WTI ($29.53), unchanged. Natural gas for April, the international benchmark, lost 1.1 cents to $2.71. The TSX energy index lost a fraction to close at 208.33.

Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. (PRE) lost 40 cents to $2.69 on 11.1 million shares. On Friday evening, it announced the "mutual decision" that its contract with Colombia's state-owned Ecopetrol SA (ECP: $18.06) to operate the Rubiales field will not be extended past the current expiry date of mid-2016. Pacific Rubiales will consider submitting a new proposal for operatorship after expiry. The field, held 60 per cent by Ecopetrol and 40 per cent by Pacific Rubiales, made up about 40 per cent of the latter company's 145,000-barrel-a-day production in the third quarter. Worries about whether the contract would be cancelled were one of many reasons that shares of Pacific Rubiales have fallen from nearly $24 in June. (Other reasons include its $4.5-billion (U.S.) debt and its 16.5-U.S.-cent quarterly dividend, which yields 31.2 per cent. The company is widely expected to cut or get rid of the dividend when it releases its 2014 financials on Wednesday.) Although the maturing Rubiales field makes up less of the company's production that it used to, because of declines and because of the development of other assets, 40 per cent is still a sizable chunk to replace. Pacific Rubiales has long maintained that it can do so before the contract expiry through its 50-per-cent-owned CPE-6 and 100-per-cent-owned Rio Ariari fields, also in Colombia. Early last year, it talked up its plans to end 2014 with production of 8,000 barrels a day at CPE-6 and 10,000 at Rio Ariari. Instead, its corporate presentation for March says CPE-6 is currently producing 1,500 barrels a day and Rio Ariari is producing 800.

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