Imperial Oil Ltd. reported on Friday $920 million (C$1.248 billion) in net income for the first quarter, up $50 million (C$75 million) from the corresponding period in 2022 with higher production.
Record production at the Canadian company’s Kearl tar sands facility boosted production to an average of 413,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (bpd), from 380,000 bpd gross oil equivalent in the first three months of 2022. The project in the province of Alberta reached its maximum. first-quarter crude output, however, averaged 259,000 bpd.
“At Cold Lake, strong production performance continued with quarterly gross production averaging 141,000 barrels per day, marking the sixth consecutive quarter at 140,000 barrels per day or more. At Syncrude, quarterly production averaged 76,000 barrels crude per day (bpd), including the start of the planned coke switch at the end of March,” Imperial said.
Oil sales rose to 455,000 bpd in January-March 2023 from 447,000 bpd in the corresponding quarter a year earlier, as refining output rose to 417,000 bpd from 399,000 bpd.
In addition to higher production, favorable currencies boosted profits, the Calgary-based company said.
Imperial’s bottom line was consistent with that of major oil companies in the first quarter of the year, with Chevron Corp. ($6.574 billion), ExxonMobil Corp. ($11.43 billion) and TotalEnergies ($5.6 billion) saw earnings rise despite lower commodities. prices.
Imperial had a realization of $75.98 a barrel on the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) from $95.01 a year and $51.42 a barrel on the price of Western Canada Select (WCS) from 80.46 dollars
“During the first quarter of 2023, crude oil prices declined as the global oil market saw higher inventory levels,” he said. “The rise in inventory levels was followed by announcements early in the second quarter of production cuts in some key oil-producing countries.”
Eight countries in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Plus (OPEC+) said on April 2 that they would voluntarily cut output in addition to a group cutback agreed last year. Separate announcements by OPEC members Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and OPEC allies Kazakhstan, Oman and Russia mean a combined output cut of 1.649 million from bpd from May to December. OPEC+ has already set a collective output cap of two million bpd effective between November 2022 and December 2023.
“Furthermore, the Canadian WTI/WCS spread continued to widen in January and February before beginning to recover in March,” Imperial said.
It paid out $266 million in dividends to shareholders in the first quarter of 2023. Investors receive 50 cents per share in the April-May 2023 payout, according to Friday’s earnings report, a 14% increase from to the previous three months.
“Imperial’s strong financial results in the first quarter were supported by sustained high utilization rates across our refining network, as well as record first quarter production at Kearl which was supported by operating procedures of improved winters,” commented Chairman, President and CEO Brad Corson. the launch of the performance.
In the new projects, Imperial said it has enabled the rail transport of diesel from its facilities in the Nova Scotia city of Dartmouth and has commissioned a third fuel gas unit of boiler in Kearl. Also, a proposed carbon capture and storage network from the climate initiative Pathways Alliance, a group of oil sands operators of which it is a part, has entered the design stage, Imperial said.
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