The oil and gas giant has been working to make operational improvements across its sprawling network as it shifts focus to increasing profitability on value-added projects.
Efforts reported production of 829,000 barrels per day to mark its third-best quarter, its highest refining rate of 488,000 barrels per day and the highest ever refined sales at 612,000 barrels per day.
“This is now back to record quarters,” CEO Rich Kruger said on an earnings call Wednesday.
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Suncor’s investment plans are being developed
Suncor’s efforts to alleviate bottlenecks and improve costs include everything from new maintenance techniques to its shift to larger, autonomous trucks. It includes spending $1 billion to increase base plant capacity to 100,000 barrels per day from 65,000, and spending $500,000 to increase Firebag production between 6,000 and 10,000 barrels per day, both generating more than $ $100 of extra free cash flow per year, Kruger said.
The effort also covers everything from materials to additives, said Dave Oldreive, senior vice president of downstream.
“It sounds like a small thing. It costs $50,000 a year, not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but you add that, we’ve got 15,000 people in this company doing that, we’re going to keep improving.
Q3 earnings beat expectations
Higher production helped it earn $2.02 billion in its third quarter, up from $1.54 billion a year earlier.
It also helped Suncor reduce its debt by more than $1.4 billion in the quarter to meet its $8 billion net debt goal ahead of many outside forecasts, the company said. The blow prompted its commitment to pay 100% of surplus to shareholders, up from 50% at the start of the year.
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