It was a black day for investors in Canada-listed energy stocks Thursday as the January crude oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 57 cents to settle at US$66.81 a barrel.
Athabasca Oil Corp. (
TSX: T.ATH,
Stock Forum), led the TSX most active list, dropping 5.4% to $2.44.
Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. (
TSX: T.COS,
Stock Forum), sank 16.2% to $11, after slashing its quarterly dividend by 42% in a bid to shore up its balance sheet in the wake of falling oil prices.
Talisman Energy Inc. (
TSX: T.TLM,
Stock Forum) eased 12.4% to $4.61 after more than 8.3 million shares changed hands.
Meanwhile, shares in energy conglomerate Alfa SAB rose in early trading Thursday after the company said it had signed a preliminary deal with
Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. (
TSX: T.PRE,
Stock Forum) to create an equal joint venture to invest in Mexican energy projects.
Alfas said the joint venture would look at bidding in Mexico’s initial round of oil and gas projects and eventually at doing exploration and production.
Pacific Rubiales dropped 18% to $8.20, leaving a market cap of $2.6 billion, based on 316.1 million shares outstanding.
Alfa is a conglomerate with an interest in U.S. shale wells.