OBVIOUSLY A SIGN OF CONFIDENCE IN THE INDUSTRY.

The explorers and producers are “more in maintenance mode than they are in a broad growth in capital spending.”

The Canadian energy industry is stabilizing after being roiled by a plummet in oil prices from more than $100 a barrel in New York in June 2014 to $26 in February. Crude is now trading around $52, with forecasters in a Bloomberg survey seeing it holding between $55 to $60 through 2019.

As oil rose, the cost of borrowing for Canadian energy companies dropped relative to government debt.

Investors now accept a yield spread of around 160 basis points, or 1.6 percentage points, compared with more than 270 in February.

That improving picture helped drive highly rated Canadian energy companies to the best performance on the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Canada Corporate Index last year, returning 6.5 per cent to investors.

The index average was 3.6 per cent.

Infrastructure companies are expected to tap the debt markets this year whereas last year they may have issued more equity, relied on credit facilities, or delayed a project or investment, Pandori said.

Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 pipeline replacement, TransCanada’s NGTL gaspipeline system, and North West Redwater’s refinery construction are some of the projects with big spending, he said.

“It’s obviously a sigh of relief when you’re seeing