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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery lost 27 cents to $70.02 on the New York Merc, while Brent for February lost 11 cents to $73.41 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $12.10 to WTI, up from a discount of $14.10. Natural gas for January added seven cents to $3.45. The TSX energy index lost 4.76 points to close at 268.56.

With eyes turning toward Ottawa and the mini-budget it will table on Monday, when it publishes its fall economic statement, today brought an early FES day in the oil sands. Three of Canada's largest oil sands companies unveiled their 2025 guidance today, all forecasting higher year-over-year production as they look to take advantage of the recent start-up of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Alas, none managed to impress investors.

Least popular was Imperial Oil Ltd. (IMO), down $6.99 to $97.03 on 3.33 million shares. Imperial (a majority investment of ExxonMobil, which yesterday released an updated multiyear outlook to 2030) will aim to produce 433,000 to 456,000 barrels a day in 2025, compared with this year's range of 420,000 to 442,000 barrels a day. These numbers are in line with what analysts were expecting. The budget, however, came in at $2-billion, higher than this year's $1.85-billion, whereas analysts were expecting a belt-trimming $1.7-billion. During a webcast presentation today, management said the budget is a bit of a one-off, a "near-term capital increase followed by [a] trend to historical level." It pointed to various "high-return growth capital" projects on the docket for 2025. For 2026 to 2029, it plans to ease back to an annual average of $1.9-billion.

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