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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery added 23 cents to $69.49 on the New York Merc, while Brent for January added 29 cents to $73.10 (all figures in this para U.S.). Despite today's increases, both benchmarks notched a weekly decline. Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $12.30 to WTI, up from a discount of $12.50. Natural gas for December lost four cents to $2.66. The TSX energy index lost 2.41 points to close at 269.22.

The Texas- and Alberta-focused Baytex Energy Corp. (BTE) added 16 cents to $4.09 on 20.8 million shares, pleasing investors with its third quarter financials. These finally showed its debt heading in the right direction. Throughout the first half of the year, the balance sheet creaked and groaned under a budget that Baytex said was deliberately weighted toward the first two quarters, during which it lived beyond its means and net debt rose toward $2.64-billion at midyear (over $100-million higher than the start of the year). Today, president and chief executive officer Eric Greager boasted that Baytex is now enjoying "meaningful free cash flow" and can hack away at its debt. This figure as of Sept. 30 was a still lofty but improving $2.49-billion.

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