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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery added $1.12 to $50.96 on the New York Merc, while Brent for February added 95 cents to $53.99 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $15.45 to WTI ($35.51), unchanged. Natural gas for January added 16 cents to $3.72. The TSX energy index added a fraction to close at 220.65.

Oil sands producer Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE) edged down six cents to $20.48 on 3.73 million shares, despite giving new life to its stalled Christina Lake expansion project, one of the first such revivals since prices crashed in 2014. Christina Lake is one of Cenovus's two producing oil sands projects and made up nearly two-fifths of its third quarter oil production, contributing 80,000 barrels a day. (That number is net to Cenovus; the project is part of a 50-50 joint venture with ConocoPhillips.) Years ago, Cenovus began designing a 50,000-barrel-a-day expansion to Christina Lake, called phase G, but put this work on hold in late 2014. This past summer, it started publicly toying with the idea of a resumption. It stated in July that it was rebidding work on the project and would provide more information with its 2017 guidance in December. Now the day has finally arrived: Cenovus announced this morning that it has set next year's budget at $1.2-billion to $1.4-billion, which will include money for Christina Lake phase G. The press release did not specify the amount of money, but Cenovus's website pegged the number at $115-million. To put that in perspective, the remaining cost to complete phase G and bring it on production, which is now forecast to happen in the second half of 2019, is estimated at $800-million to $900-million. Just a fraction of that will be spent next year. Still, the fact that Cenovus is ready to revive the project is an encouraging sign. As noted above, this is the second previously stalled oil sands project to be given the go-ahead, following Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.'s (CNQ: $43.73) announcement last month that it would restart activity on its 40,000-barrel-a-day Kirby North project. Such announcements are spurring renewed optimism in the oil patch. Another encouraging sign is the overall size of Cenovus's 2017 budget, which is nearly 24 per cent higher than this year's budget of $1-billion to $1.1-billion.

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