Imperial Oil, one of Canada’s largest integrated oil companies, reported its third quarter earnings on October 31. The company’s oil output consists exclusively of oil sands (bitumen) and synthetic crude oil (upgraded bitumen). Its bitumen operations are focused on its Kearl mine and Cold Lake thermal operations. Synthetic crude oil is produced via its share agreement in the Syncrude upgrader (58.74% Suncor, 25% Imperial, 9.03% Sinopec, 7.23% CNOOC). Imperial is owned ~69.6% by ExxonMobil.
- The Kearl mine produced a record 316 Mb/d of bitumen in the third quarter (Imperial 71%: 224 Mb/d, ExxonMobil 29%: 92 Mb/d). The company remains ahead of its plans to expand output from Kearl with targeted upside from current levels of 50 Mb/d by 2030.
- Cold Lake operations averaged 150 Mb/d as several expansion projects continue to be optimized. The company is targeting output growth of upwards of 25 Mb/d by 2030 with additional upside potential.
- Syncrude operations recorded 78 Mb/d in the quarter. Further expansion is possible as the Syncrude partnership pursues expansion of mined bitumen via the Milred Lake mine extension with Imperial targeting its share of output at ~85 Mb/d by 2030.
Imperial’s latest production results remain ahead of schedule, especially for its Kearl asset. The company’s planned expansions of Kearl and its Cold Lake operations (green bordered area in table below) remain an integral component of RBN’s view that crude oil production in Western Canada can grow in the range of 500 Mb/d by 2030 (final row in red text).
