Canadian oil sands producer Suncor Energy will present the market this spring with options it is considering for securing long-term bitumen supply, the company’s chief executive said on Wednesday.
The bitumen supply question will be one of the central themes of a new long-term vision the company plans to unveil at a March 31 investor day, Rich Kruger told analysts on a conference call.
“We know it needs to be bold and ambitious, clear and compelling, to keep your interest and support,” Kruger said.
Calgary-based Suncor has spent a number of years exploring options to sustain the supply of thick, sticky oil sands crude to its Base Plant upgrading facilities north of Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Suncor’s Base Plant has a production capacity of 350,000 barrels per day, according to the company’s website, but its Base Plant mine is expected to be largely depleted by the mid-2030s.
One option the company has proposed is a new, 225,000-bpd, open-pit oil sands mine expansion, which would be located adjacent to its existing Base Plant operations.
However, it has not made a final investment decision to go ahead with the project and it remains unclear whether such a project would get the go-ahead from Canadian regulators.
Suncor has been framing its upcoming investor day as the beginning of the next phase of what has been a remarkable turnaround story for the company.
Less than four years ago, the company’s previous CEO Mark Little resigned following a string of worker fatalities and operational mishaps that had resulted in Suncor shares significantly lagging its peers.
Kruger, a former Imperial Oil CEO, was coaxed out of retirement and tasked with reviving the company’s flagging fortunes. Since then, Suncor’s performance has improved dramatically. On Tuesday, it announced record fourth-quarter financial results, including a new high of 909,000 bpd of production.
The company has also reduced its WTI break-even price by $10 per barrel since 2024, relying on automation and workforce reductions to achieve its cost-cutting goals a year ahead of schedule.
The market is keenly awaiting Suncor’s upcoming investor day to get a glimpse of what it plans, particularly with respect to potential capacity additions and longer-term capital expenditures, said TD Cowen analyst Menno Hulshof in a note.
“We are also hoping for improved visibility on how (Suncor’s) portfolio/strategy could evolve over the next five, 10 or even 15 years. This remains a key investor question, in our view,” Hulshof said.
(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary; Editing by Chris Reese)