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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery lost 95 cents to $49.14 on the New York Merc, while Brent for May lost $2.15 to $54.95 (all figures in this para U.S.). Prices slid on news that Iran and world powers have reached a tentative deal on Tehran's nuclear program. Iran is hoping that the West will lift sanctions on its oil exports, a move that would increase world supplies and weigh on prices. The benchmarks recovered somewhat (though still ended the day down) as officials said talks would continue for three months, indicating the deal is still far from certain. Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $12.40 to WTI ($36.74), unchanged. Natural gas for May added 10.8 cents to $2.71. The TSX energy index added 3.89 points to close at 223.77.

Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. (COS) added 58 cents to $10.79 on 7.64 million shares. It has posted new monthly production figures on-line, showing that its non-operated, 37-per-cent-held Syncrude oil sands project, which is its only asset, produced 291,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in March, or 106,900 barrels a day net to the company. This brings first quarter production to 107,900 net barrels a day. Although the March figure is lower than the February figure of 110,300 net barrels a day, Canadian Oil Sands is still well within its full-year 2015 guidance of 96,000 to 111,000 barrels a day. This is a nice change from the last couple of years. In 2013 and 2014, Syncrude's production guidance was lowered seven times because of unplanned outages. Canadian Oil Sands promised that those would stop happening now that a multiyear upgrading program is finished. So far, it is keeping its word, and investors have rewarded it by sending its shares up from a low of $6 at the end of January. That was around the same time that the company cut its quarterly dividend to five cents from 20 cents; the current yield is 1.8 per cent. Some of the subsequent rise had to do with takeover speculation. At the beginning of February, FirstEnergy Capital analyst Michael Dunn predicted that a "take-out [of Canadian Oil Sands] by another Syncrude partner is a distinct possibility should the shares continue to languish." The second-largest co-owner of Syncrude, with 25 per cent, is Imperial Oil Ltd. (IMO: $51.37). The speculation sent Canadian Oil Sands' stock racing past $12 in mid-February, but as the weeks wore on, the talk died down. In a research note on Imperial Oil last Friday, RBC Capital analyst Greg Pardy put the likelihood of a Canadian Oil Sands takeover at 10 per cent or less.

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