Suncor production hits record high, but sales volumes slow as inventory builds
Article content
Article content
The Calgary-based oilsands major 's adjusted operating earnings of $1.6 billion in the three months ending March 31 were down from $1.8 billion a year ago, but still beat analysts' expectations.
Article content
Article content
Boasting about Suncor's ability to capture margin opportunities in the refining business relative to its peers, chief executive Rich Kruger said the company has emphasized running facilities at full capacity, driving down unit costs and trusting marketing teams to sell the product rather than throttling throughputs to meet anticipated demand.
Article content
Article content
'Last time I checked, I can never sell a barrel that I don't produce or refine,' he said on a conference call on Wednesday. 'We've turned that around and said, 'Get after it and we'll find valuable homes.' And I think our teams have risen to that opportunity.'
Article content
Suncor achieved record refined product sales of 604,900 bbls/day in the first quarter, compared to 581,000 bbls/d in the same period last year, driven by higher refinery throughputs and fuel sales across the company's retail Petro-Canada network.
Article content
For the third consecutive quarter, the company's refining utilization was above 100 per cent, with Suncor's refineries processing a record 483,000 bbl/d during the quarter, compared to 455,300 bbls/d a year ago, equating to a 104 per cent utilization rate.
Article content
Article content
The company also had record upstream production of 853,200 barrels per day (bbls/d), marking a new high for the company, in part due to record-setting bitumen production at its Firebag in-situ mining facility and the resumption of offshore production at its White Rose facility in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Article content
Article content
Capital spending was $1.09 billion, which was below analysts' estimates for the first quarter, but in line with Suncor's 2025 guidance that targeted a midpoint capital spending program of $6.2 billion, according to RBC Capital Markets.
Article content
Despite the upbeat tone on Wednesday's earnings call with investors, the company acknowledged there are headwinds on the horizon, with prices currently bouncing around US$60 per barrel for benchmark West Texas Intermediate. Suncor said WTI averaged around US$71.40/bbl during the first quarter of 2025.
Article content
'I'm very pleased that the significant strides we've made over the last two years to improve our operational and financial performance significantly reduce our WTI break-even and strengthen our balance sheet,' chief financial officer Kris Smith said on the call.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
23 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Bolivia heads to the polls as its right-wing opposition eyes first victory in decades
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivians headed to the polls on Sunday to vote in presidential and congressional elections that could spell the end of the Andean nation's long-dominant leftist party and see a right-wing government elected for the first time in over two decades. The election on Sunday is one of the most consequential for Bolivia in recent times — and one of the most unpredictable. Even at this late stage, a remarkable 30% or so of voters remain undecided. Polls show the two leading right-wing candidates, multimillionaire business owner Samuel Doria Medina and former President Jorge Fernando 'Tuto' Quiroga, locked in a virtual dead heat. Many undecided voters But a right-wing victory isn't assured. Many longtime voters for the governing Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party, now shattered by infighting, live in rural areas and tend to be undercounted in polling. With the nation's worst economic crisis in four decades leaving Bolivians waiting for hours in fuel lines, struggling to find subsidized bread and squeezed by double-digit inflation, the opposition candidates are billing the race as a chance to alter the country's destiny. 'I have rarely, if ever, seen a situational tinderbox with as many sparks ready to ignite,' Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez, founding partner of Aurora Macro Strategies, a New York-based advisory firm, writes in a memo. Breaking the MAS party's monopoly on political power, he adds, pushes 'the country into uncharted political waters amid rising polarization, severe economic fragility and a widening rural–urban divide.' Bolivia could follow rightward trend The outcome will determine whether Bolivia — a nation of about 12 million people with the largest lithium reserves on Earth and crucial deposits of rare earth minerals — follows a growing trend in Latin America, where right-wing leaders like Argentina's libertarian Javier Milei, Ecuador's strongman Daniel Noboa and El Salvador's conservative populist Nayib Bukele have surged in popularity. A right-wing government in Bolivia could trigger a major geopolitical realignment for a country now allied with Venezuela's socialist-inspired government and world powers such as China, Russia and Iran. Conservative candidates vow to restore US relations Doria Medina and Quiroga have praised the Trump administration and vowed to restore ties with the United States — ruptured in 2008 when charismatic, long-serving former President Evo Morales expelled the American ambassador. The right-wing front-runners also have expressed interest in doing business with Israel, which has no diplomatic relations with Bolivia, and called for foreign private companies to invest in the country and develop its rich natural resources. After storming to office in 2006 at the start of the commodities boom, Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president, nationalized the nation's oil and gas industry, using the lush profits to reduce poverty, expand infrastructure and improve the lives of the rural poor. After three consecutive presidential terms, as well as a contentious bid for an unprecedented fourth in 2019 that set off popular unrest and led to his ouster, Morales has been barred from this race by Bolivia's constitutional court. His ally-turned-rival, President Luis Arce, withdrew his candidacy for the MAS on account of his plummeting popularity and nominated his senior minister, Eduardo del Castillo. As the party splintered, Andrónico Rodríguez, the 36-year-old president of the senate who hails from the same union of coca farmers as Morales, launched his bid. Ex-president Morales urges supports to deface ballots Rather than back the candidate widely considered his heir, Morales, holed up in his tropical stronghold and evading an arrest warrant on charges related to his relationship with a 15-year-old girl, has urged his supporters to deface their ballots or leave them blank. Voting is mandatory in Bolivia, where some 7.9 million Bolivians are eligible to vote. Doria Medina and Quiroga, familiar faces in Bolivian politics who both served in past neoliberal governments and have run for president three times before, have struggled to stir up interest as voter angst runs high. 'There's enthusiasm for change but no enthusiasm for the candidates,' said Eddy Abasto, 44, a Tupperware vendor in Bolivia's capital of La Paz torn between voting for Doria Medina and Quiroga. 'It's always the same, those in power live happily spending the country's money, and we suffer.' Conservative candidates say austerity needed Doria Medina and Quiroga have warned of the need for a painful fiscal adjustment, including the elimination of Bolivia's generous food and fuel subsidies, to save the nation from insolvency. Some analysts caution this risks sparking social unrest. 'A victory for either right-wing candidate could have grave repercussions for Bolivia's Indigenous and impoverished communities,' said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivian research group. 'Both candidates could bolster security forces and right-wing para-state groups, paving the way for violent crackdowns on protests expected to erupt over the foreign exploitation of lithium and drastic austerity measures.' All 130 seats in Bolivia's Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Parliament, are up for grabs, along with 36 in the Senate, the upper house. If, as is widely expected, no one receives more than 50% of the vote, or 40% of the vote with a lead of 10 percentage points, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff on Oct. 19 for the first time since Bolivia's 1982 return to democracy.
National Post
2 hours ago
- National Post
CUPE: Former Air Canada Counsel to Decide Whether to End CUPE-Air Canada Dispute in Clear Conflict-of-interest
Article content TORONTO — In an almost unthinkable display of conflict-of-interest, a former Air Canada legal counsel, Maryse Tremblay, will rule on whether to end job action by striking Air Canada flight attendants at the Canada Industrial Relations Board. Article content CUPE requested Tremblay recuse herself from chairing the proceedings. Despite CUPE's request, Tremblay will hear the case. Article content Article content Tremblay, who spent her career advocating for the interests of Air Canada, was appointed to chair the CIRB by the Carney government. Article content It is increasingly difficult to escape the appearance of collusion between Air Canada and the Liberal government throughout this process. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content
CTV News
3 hours ago
- CTV News
Expert says Air Canada's cargo shipments are ‘crucial' to Canada's economy
Watch Canadian Chamber of Commerce Matthew Holmes explains how the Jobs Minister's decision to end the flight attendant strike is crucial to protect Canada's economy.
