CALGARY – Husky Energy Inc. has restored its dividend as higher oil prices and a cost-cutting plan helped it boost earnings in the last quarter.
The company says it will pay a cash dividend of 7.5 cents per share for the quarter ended Dec. 31 after cutting its dividend in early 2016 at a time when oil was trading at less than half its current value.
Calgary-based Husky says it had fourth-quarter net earnings of $672 million or 66 cents per share, compared to $186 million or 19 cents per share for the same quarter last year.
Full-year adjusted net earnings for 2017 came in at $882 million compared to an adjusted loss of $655 million a year earlier.
The company says its integrated business of production and refining have helped insulate it from widening Canadian heavy oil differentials, and that its U.S. refining business will benefit from changes to the U.S. tax code.
Husky says it’s also benefited from the diversification of its offshore oil and gas business that now makes up about a quarter of the company’s production.
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