Dividend cuts among Canadian energy producers are poised to accelerate as cost reductions fail to boost shrinking cash flow. Companies from Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. to Baytex Energy Corp. are in line for deeper payout decreases, according to analysts, after Crescent Point Energy Corp. slashed its dividend for the first time last week as crude sank to a six-year low. Just 38 percent of the 63 energy companies in Canada’s Standard & Poor’s/TSX Energy index had positive free cash flow, defined as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures, as of Aug. 17. That’s down from 43 percent in 2013, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The dwindling cash flow comes even after Canadian companies joined some $180 billion in global cutbacks this year, the most since the oil crash of 1986, according to Rystad Energy AS, an Oslo-based energy consultant. “There’s so much cash being spent on dividends,” said Greg […]