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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery lost $1.14 to $40.36 on the New York Merc, while Brent for June lost 74 cents to $43.10 (all figures in this para U.S.), as traders made their bets on what will happen at this Sunday's meeting in Doha, Qatar -- will global oil producers agree to freeze production, and if they do, will it even matter for oil prices? Many observers, including the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its monthly oil report yesterday, have predicted that "if there is a production freeze, rather than a cut, the impact on physical supplies will be limited" (to quote the IEA). Other analysts maintain that a weak deal could lead to an abrupt slide in sentiment and thus prices. The world will find out after Sunday. Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $14.80 to WTI ($25.56), down from a discount of $14.55. Natural gas for May lost 6.8 cents to $1.902. The TSX energy index lost 4.14 points to close at 175.57.

Li Ka-Shing's Husky Energy Inc. (HSE) added 10 cents to $16.82 on 2.2 million shares. It is evaluating bids for the Western Canadian assets it put up for sale earlier this year. These assets are producing about 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day and have been valued by analysts at up to $2.1-billion. Sources "familiar with the matter" told Bloomberg yesterday that interested potential buyers include the private Teine Energy Ltd. and Raging River Exploration Inc. (RRX), down 12 cents to $9.51 on 2.03 million shares. Raging River has made no secret of its desire to shop for assets. It is not known as a big shopper, generally preferring to increase its Saskatchewan Viking-focused production through drilling (or very small acquisitions), but that changed once oil prices crashed. Raging River picked up a 600-barrel-a-day Viking asset from Surge Energy Inc. (SGY: $2.20) in February of last year for $35.7-million, and then took over the 2,750-barrel-a-day Anegada Energy Corp. for $126-million in December. In the weeks after the Anegada deal was announced, Raging River's president and chief executive officer, Neil Roszell, made it clear that he was just getting started. Most recently, while on BNN last month to discuss a recently completed $108-million bought deal of shares at $8.65 each (nicely below today's close of $9.51), Mr. Roszell said Raging River is "very keen" on acquisitions and has "more negotiating power than we've had in recent memory." Investors will have to wait and see how it fares at the negotiating table with Husky. Raging River has not disclosed that it is at the table, but when Mr. Roszell was contacted by Bloomberg yesterday to discuss the rumours, he said he could not comment because of a confidentiality agreement. That means that Raging River has at least examined Husky's data.

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