A Suncor Energy facility in Sherwood Park, Alta., on Aug. 21, 2019.CANDACE ELLIOTT/Reuters
Oil and gas production at Suncor Energy Inc. SU-T is tracking ahead of its forecast so far this year, though the company said Wednesday it is refraining from making changes to its full-year guidance.
CEO Rich Kruger said the company is delivering tangible improvements and tracking above its own guidance on several metrics at this point in the year.
But Suncor is sticking to its previously announced full-year production forecast of 770,000 to 810,000 barrels a day on average for the year.
Mr. Kruger said production at Fort Hills will likely go down in the second half of 2024 as Suncor focuses on opening up a new north pit at the mine.
“We know we’ve got a second half to go and we’re going to play it out to the final whistle,” Mr. Kruger said on a conference call with analysts.
The Calgary-based company beat Wall Street’s expectations with its second-quarter earnings report, delivering total oil sands production of 834,400 barrels a day on average, compared with 814,300 barrels a day in the same quarter of 2023.
The company achieved record bitumen production at both its Fort Hills site (in part due to acquiring 100 per cent ownership of the project last year) and Firebag oil sands sites.
Its total downstream production averaged 770,600 barrels a day in the second quarter, exceeding Wall Street’s expectations by five per cent.
Suncor also saw record quarterly refined product sales in the second quarter and broke a quarterly utilization record at its 146,000-barrel-a-day Edmonton refinery.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Greg Pardy called the company’s second-quarter performance “solid” and an “all-around beat,” adding he believes Suncor is “well-positioned for a solid second half” of the year.
Suncor, which until recently had a reputation for under-performance compared with industry peers, has been pursuing a major corporate turnaround plan under the leadership of Kruger, who took the helm in April, 2023.
The former Imperial Oil head, who was lured out of retirement to take the top job at Suncor, quickly reduced the company’s employee head count by 20 per cent, or 1,500 people, in order to eliminate unnecessary or “unaffordable” work.
He has also been leading a push toward automation of the company’s oil sands mining truck fleet.
Suncor has 22 fully autonomous mine trucks in its fleet, six more than it had at the time of its last quarterly earnings call. Fifteen more new autonomous trucks are slated to arrive at Fort Hills by the end of November, and an additional 18 will be in place at the company’s Base Plant mine operations by the first quarter of 2025.
In total, the 55 autonomous trucks are expected to lower Suncor’s total operating costs by more than US$300-million annually, Mr. Kruger said.