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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery lost 48 cents to $59.15 on the New York Merc, while Brent for June lost 32 cents to $66.46 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $9.95 to WTI ($49.20), up from a discount of $10.40. Natural gas for June added 2.5 cents to $2.77. The TSX energy index lost a fraction to close at 236.91.

Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. (COS) added seven cents to $13.18 on 6.29 million shares, after releasing its first quarter financials. Net loss came to $186-million, compared with earnings of $172-million a year earlier, mainly because of foreign exchange losses on U.S.-dollar debt. Net production of about 103,000 barrels a day was already known because Canadian Oil Sands posts the figures for its only asset, the 37-per-cent-held Syncrude oil sands project, on-line every month. This led analysts to predict cash flow of 11 cents a share for the quarter. Instead, cash flow was 16 cents a share, thanks to lower-than-forecast operating costs ($35.71 a barrel instead of $40.19). As a result of cost improvements, the company has lowered its budget to $429-million from $451-million, while keeping its net production guidance intact at 96,000 to 111,000 barrels a day. All in all, this was one of Canadian Oil Sands' more encouraging updates lately. Past problems at Syncrude forced it to lower its production guidance three times in 2013 and four times in 2014. It promised that it would put a stop to those problems, and so far it has. The stock still has a long way to climb back to its 2008 high of over $55. Still, it has more than doubled from its low of $6 this past January. That was the month that the company cut its quarterly dividend to five cents from 20 cents, for a current yield of 1.5 per cent. CIBC analyst Arthur Greyfer, writing about the first quarter results, said the dividend will not likely see a "meaningful increase" until at least 2017, but he still raised his price target on the stock to $13 from $11. RBC analyst Greg Pardy raised his target to $13 from $10, and Scotia's Jason Bouvier raised his to $11 from $7.

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