Imperial Oil Earns Record C$2,454 Million As Refining Profit More Than Triples
Downstream earnings hit C$1,555 million and Imperial returned C$2,506 million to holders, even as Kearl output slid.
Imperial Oil, the Canadian integrated oil company majority-owned by Exxon Mobil, earned a record C$2,454 million in the third quarter, up from C$539 million a year earlier, the company said Friday. Refining carried the quarter, and oil sands output fell.
Refining leads the profit surge
Net income came to C$5.11 per diluted share, against C$1.07 a year earlier, when after-tax impairment and restructuring charges of C$555 million weighed on results. Excluding those items, the year-earlier figure was C$1,094 million, or C$2.17 a share. Net income also rose from C$2,190 million in the second quarter.
Downstream, the refining and fuels segment, earned C$1,555 million, up from C$444 million. Upstream earned C$941 million, up from C$728 million, and chemicals earned C$52 million, up from C$21 million. The company credited favourable product mix of about C$170 million, mainly renewable diesel at its Strathcona refinery.
Cash flow from operations reached C$3,228 million, up from C$1,798 million a year earlier.
Higher prices, lower barrels
West Texas Intermediate averaged US$85.68 a barrel against US$64.97 a year earlier. Bitumen realizations rose to C$92.16 a barrel from C$68.22. The company said crude prices did fall from the second quarter, so the gain is a year-over-year one.
Upstream production averaged 418,000 oil-equivalent barrels a day, down from 462,000. Kearl, in which Imperial holds a share, averaged 282,000 gross barrels a day versus 316,000, hurt by weaker ore grade and a third-party pipeline outage that fully shut production for multiple days. Imperial now targets total gross Kearl output of 280,000 barrels a day in 2026. Refinery utilization slipped to 88% from 98%.
C$2,506 million back to shareholders
Imperial paid C$420 million in dividends and spent C$2,086 million buying 11.6 million shares, including shares bought from ExxonMobil. It declared a fourth-quarter dividend of 87 cents a share, and cash rose to C$2.9 billion.
The company expects to finish its accelerated buyback before year end. CEO John Whelan said Imperial is "well positioned to return additional surplus cash to shareholders in the new year."
Shares outstanding stood at 472.0 million on September 30, down from 496.9 million a year earlier.
Sources
- 8-K Filing — IMPERIAL OIL LTD (IMO) — SEC EDGAR
- Exhibit imperialoillimited-secform.htm — IMPERIAL OIL LTD 8-K exhibit — SEC EDGAR
