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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery lost 65 cents to $60.99 on the New York Merc, while Brent for May lost $1.95 to $63.83 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $28 to WTI ($32.99), unchanged. Natural gas for April gained three cents to $2.70. The TSX energy index lost 1.17 points to 169.85.

Saskatchewan- and Utah-focused Crescent Point Energy Corp. (CPG) fell 77 cents to $8.46 on 10.95 million shares, despite the efforts of president and chief executive officer Scott Saxberg to hype the company's "excellent" and "tremendous operational success in 2017." Crescent Point produced 176,013 barrels of oil equivalent a day, very slightly higher than its target of 175,500 barrels a day. Notably, Crescent Point's capital spending was $1.63-billion, higher than the $1.55-billion that it had budgeted. As well, its operating expenses rose to $12.56 a barrel in 2017 from $11.27 a barrel in 2016. Mr. Saxberg claimed that the company "remained disciplined financially" in 2017, but investors might not readily agree with that, given that Crescent Point's net debt increased to $4.02-billion at year-end 2017 from $3.68-billion at year-end 2016. (For comparison, Crescent Point's market cap is $4.61-billion.) Energy investors are generally wary of heavy debt loads, especially following the oil price crash of late 2014. These days, natural gas prices remain low, and oil and gas transport bottlenecks continue to be a problem in Western Canada.

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