Imperial says frigid weather crimped Kearl oilsands mine output in Q1

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CALGARY — Imperial Oil Ltd. said frigid weather was to blame for reduced output at its Kearl oilsands mine in northeastern Alberta during the first quarter, but that it’s since recovered to deliver strong April production.

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The mine, owned by Imperial and its majority owner ExxonMobil Corp., churned out 256,000 barrels per day during the first three months of the year, down from 277,000 a year earlier.

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“While Kearl got off to a strong start in January, extreme weather conditions rolled in for most of February — conditions we haven’t seen since the winter of 2022,” chief executive Brad Corson told analysts on a conference call Friday to discuss the company’s latest results.

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Corson, who is to retire after Imperial’s annual meeting next week, said the company learned from the severe cold snap three years ago, when volumes were hit much harder, with gross production of 186,000 barrels a day.

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“While I would say it was unfortunate that the net result was still lower volumes … I’m quite proud,” he said.

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“But as always, there’s learnings and insights, and we’re going to continue to strive to be better in these sort of situations when they occur in the future.”

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Senior vice-president Cheryl Gomez-Smith, who runs the production side of Imperial’s business, said the company has cold weather protocols when temperatures dip to -25 C or lower that involve reducing throughput in order to protect equipment.

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“Going forward, we’re looking at where can we build capacity and redundancy?” she told the call.

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Imperial is also looking at ways to bump up the capacity and reduce the wear on pipelines that carry oilsands slurry around the site.

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“And what that allows us is to further strengthen this performance going forward to, quote unquote, weather the storms,” she said.

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Corson said production at Kearl last month was close to its record April output of 300,000 barrels a day.

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“So despite lower volumes year-over-year, I continue to be very proud of the Kearl team for their hard work, their resilience and overcoming adversity, and we continue to have great confidence in Kearl and our plans to grow volumes,” he said.

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Corson is to hand the CEO mantle to John Whelan, who hails from St. John’s, N.L. and had most recently been a senior vice-president for ExxonMobil.

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During the quarter, the company benefited from a narrowing in the discount between the heavy oil it produces and West Texas intermediate, the key U.S. benchmark for light oil that’s easier to refine.

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WTI averaged US$71.42 per barrel during the first quarter, down from US$76.86 a barrel a year earlier.

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But the pricing for Western Canada Select improved to US$58.83 a barrel from US$57.50, Imperial said.

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Earlier Friday, Imperial reported a first-quarter profit of $1.29 billion, up from $1.2 billion in the same quarter last year.

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The profit amounted to $2.52 per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31, up from $2.23 per diluted share a year earlier.