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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery added 37 cents to $62.63 on the New York Merc, while Brent for November added 37 cents to $66.39 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $13.30 to WTI, down from a discount of $12.40. Natural gas for October added two cents to $3.11. The TSX energy index added 4.25 points to close at 277.77.

Oil sands producer Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE) added 45 cents to $22.57 on 19.9 million shares, as investors applauded its deal to shed some of its problem-plagued downstream (refining) operations in the United States. The company plans to sell its 50-per-cent interest in WRB Refining to the other 50-per-cent owner, Phillips 66, for $1.4-billion (U.S.) cash. WRB holds the Wood River refinery in Illinois and the Borger refinery in Texas. The companies plan to close the sale near the end of the third quarter.

Selling Wood River and Borger, with their gross collective refining capacity of 495,000 barrels a day (or just under 250,000 net to Cenovus), will reduce Cenovus's overall refining capacity by one-third to about 473,000 barrels a day. For investors, this is not a sad farewell. Persistent problems within the downstream division have played an outsized role in why Cenovus's shares have lost one-quarter of their value in the last 18 months. In the second quarter of 2025, for context, the division's operating margin was negative $71-million -- and that was a good quarter. The four previous quarters showed operating margin shortfalls of $237-million, $396-million, $323-million and $237-million.

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