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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery lost 21 cents to $65.21 on the New York Merc, while Brent for April lost 10 cents to $70.75 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $14.10 to WTI, up from a discount of $14.40. Natural gas for April (new front month) lost four cents to $2.82. The TSX energy index added 2.93 points to close at 365.11.

Oil sands producer Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE) added 17 cents to $30.18 on 14.6 million shares, as it finally kicked a lingering Husky hangover. It has decided to redeem two batches of preferred shares, Series 1 and Series 2, on March 31 at $25 each, plus final dividends. The redemption will cost about $300-million.

With this redemption, Cenovus will free itself from the last of the preferred share shackles it inherited from Husky Energy through their megamerger in 2021. Husky had issued several series of high-yield preferreds. Each series could be redeemed, converted into a new series, or renewed with a different dividend -- but the choice would come around only once every five years. The first time that Cenovus was allowed to make this choice was December, 2024. It picked redemption, deciding that the steep upfront cost ($250-million for that batch) would be worth it for the lower long-term dividend costs. The same choice and the same decision came around in March, 2025 (costing $200-million), and June, 2025 (costing $150-million). To see their reappearance now comes as no surprise: For months, both the Series 1 and 2 preferred shares have been trading near their redemption price of $25.

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