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Suncor Cash Flow Soothes Investor Concerns Over Syncrude Outage

Suncor Trims Top End of Production Forecast on Syncrude Shutdown

(Bloomberg) -- Suncor Energy Inc. managed to largely allay investors’ concerns over the most recent production problem at its massive Syncrude facility by highlighting its increasing cash flow and returning more of those funds to shareholders.

Even after shutting Syncrude last month because of a power failure, Suncor generated C$2.45 billion ($1.87 billion) in cash from operations last quarter, up 46 percent from a year earlier. Canada’s largest oil producer by market capitalization also boosted its share buyback program by 40 percent to C$3 billion.

The results show Suncor’s investments to increase production in oil prices are starting to pay off. After years of building the projects, Suncor is now ramping up output at its Fort Hills oil-sands mine and the Hebron offshore project. Even after reducing the top end of its production forecast to 750,000 barrels a day on Wednesday, the outlook still represents a 9.4 percent increase from last year’s output.

“Despite some disappointing setbacks operationally this quarter, Suncor nevertheless delivered another solid quarter of financial performance,” Chris Cox, an analyst at Raymond James, said in a note.

Suncor rose 1.7 percent to C$54.01 at 10:55 a.m. in Toronto. The shares were up 15 percent this year through Wednesday, compared with a 2.5 percent gain for the S&P/TSX energy index.

Transformer Trip

Suncor has been grappling with the Syncrude outage since late June, when a transformer trip knocked out power to the 350,000-barrel-a-day plant, one of the biggest of its kind in the world. The company returned part of the facility to service this month, and says a second section will be back online in August, with the plant returning to full capacity by mid-September.

Output this year will be 740,000 to 750,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, the Calgary-based company said Wednesday. Suncor was forecasting production of 740,000 to 780,000 barrels as of May 1. Output from Syncrude will be about 60 percent to 70 percent of capacity for August, Suncor has said.

“We want to reiterate our belief in Syncrude’s long‑term potential and ability to achieve sustained reliability improvements, despite our disappointment with recent operational performance,” Chief Executive Officer Steve Williams said in a statement. “From experience, we know that long‑term reliability is a journey and we are working with the owners to advance strategic initiatives in order to achieve our reliability and cost goals.”

The most recent outage is just the latest mishap at Canada’s second-oldest oil-sands mine, which started operation in the mid-1970s and has faced reliability issues in recent years. The plant in May underwent scheduled maintenance that took longer than expected.

Suncor owns about 59 percent of Syncrude, and Imperial Oil Ltd. owns 25 percent. The remainder of the operation is owned by China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and CNOOC Ltd.’s Nexen.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Orland in Calgary at korland@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net, Joe Carroll

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