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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery lost seven cents to $49.09 on the New York Merc, while Brent for November added 29 cents to $54.49 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $12.15 to WTI ($36.94), unchanged. Natural gas for October lost two cents to $2.98. The TSX energy index lost a fraction to close at 172.95.

Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE) lost 12 cents to $10.17 on 4.8 million shares, despite some spirited self-congratulation this morning at the Barclays CEO Energy-Power Conference in New York. The conference singles out chief executive officers, but the presenter for Cenovus was actually Drew Zieglgansberger, executive vice-president of the company's Deep basin division. Up until very recently, he was its executive vice-president of oil sands manufacturing. The Deep basin did not become a core area for Cenovus until May, when the company roughly doubled in size by acquiring assets in the Deep basin and in the oil sands from ConocoPhillips for $17.7-billion. This was a "very transformational" acquisition, Mr. Zieglgansberger told the conference this morning. It has also been very unpopular among investors. Since the deal was announced in March, Cenovus's stock has fallen toward $10 from around $17.50. The drop partly reflects the debt that Cenovus took on to help pay for the acquisition. Mr. Zieglgansberger seemed well aware of that and told the conference that debt reduction is Cenovus's "No. 1 priority in the near term." The company has already vowed to sell $4-billion to $5-billion worth of assets by year-end to bring the debt down.

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