> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bullished.co/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Imperial Oil Eyes Moving Up Aspen Oil Sands Decision, Trims 2026 Curl Target To 280,000 Barrels - URL: https://www.bullished.co/imperial-oil-eyes-moving-up-aspen-oil-sands-decision-trims-2026-curl-target-to-280-000-7c184b2f/ - Published: 2026-10-30T16:21:18.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-30T16:21:18.000Z - Description: CEO John Whelan says better confidence in drilling technology may pull Aspen forward from the end of the decade. - Author: Matteo Parrino - Tags: Earnings, IMO, Industry: Energy [Imperial Oil](https://www.bullished.co/tag/imo/), the Canadian integrated oil company, is weighing whether to bring forward its final investment decision on the Aspen oil sands project, CEO John Whelan said on the company's third-quarter earnings call Friday. The same call brought a lower 2026 production target of 280,000 barrels per day gross at the Kearl mine, about 5,000 below the low end of its guidance. ## Aspen could come sooner Asked by an RBC Capital Markets analyst how much appetite Imperial has for growth, Whelan, who is chairman, president and CEO, said the company had planned to take a final investment decision on Aspen at the end of the decade. Now, he said, "we are looking at, do we want to bring it forward?" The reason is technology. Whelan said Grand Rapids, a solvent-assisted drilling project at Cold Lake, has performed "beyond our expectations," which has raised confidence in the same approach for Aspen. A pilot of enhanced bitumen recovery technology at Aspen is on track to start in early 2027, and he said proving it would take two or three years. He ruled out a rush across the portfolio. "I don't see kind of bringing them all forward, doing them all in parallel," he said, adding that Imperial would look at Aspen's timing and run the work as a program. Later he called Aspen the next-best organic growth opportunity in the portfolio after getting Kearl to 300,000 barrels per day and Cold Lake to 165,000. ## Outages cut Kearl's year Whelan blamed the lower Kearl target on third-party events, including a transformer failure on a pipeline that shut production at the mine for several days in mid-September. Kearl averaged 282,000 barrels per day gross in the quarter, up 25,000 from the second quarter, which had a planned turnaround. He told the RBC analyst the year's problems were one-offs, not systemic, and said nothing in them "causes us any doubt whatsoever" on the targets of 300,000 barrels per day at Kearl and 165,000 at Cold Lake. Cheryl Gomez-Smith, senior vice president of upstream, said the fourth quarter would be "one of our best ever." At Cold Lake, the Lemming project was producing 10,000 barrels per day, and Grand Rapids was above 21,000. ## The government deal clock Whelan tied the investment climate to a non-binding three-party memorandum among industry and the federal and Alberta governments. Industry and officials are targeting a definitive agreement by November 15, and he said "there's still a lot of work left to do." Industry committed in the memorandum to a six-megaton-a-year carbon capture project, and governments to a pipeline to the West Coast of a million barrels a day plus fiscal and regulatory incentives, he said. On the quarter, Imperial reported net income of $2.454 billion, with record downstream earnings of $1.555 billion. It declared a fourth-quarter dividend of 87 cents per share and expects to finish its accelerated share buyback by year end. The November 15 target for a definitive government agreement is two weeks away. Learn - [How To Read An Earnings Call Transcript: Start With Guidance, Then Find What's Missing →](https://www.bullished.co/learn/how-to-read-an-earnings-call/) How to read an earnings call transcript: check guidance first, look for dropped metrics, compare growth with last quarter, and watch hedged wording. ### Sources - [Imperial Oil beats Q3 profit estimates](https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2026/10/30/imperial-oil-beats-profit-estimates-on-stronger-refining-margins/?ref=bullished.co) — Bloomberg - [Imperial Oil (IMO) Surpasses Q3 Earnings Estimates](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/imperial-oil-imo-surpasses-q3-122501466.html?.tsrc=rss&ref=bullished.co) — Yahoo Finance - [Imperial Oil: Q3 Earnings Snapshot – WTOP News](https://wtop.com/national/2026/10/imperial-oil-q3-earnings-snapshot/?ref=bullished.co) — wtop.com - [Imperial declares fourth quarter 2026 dividend](https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/imperial-declares-fourth-quarter-2026-115500127.html?ref=bullished.co) — Yahoo Finance - [Imperial Oil Limited (IMO) Stock Forecasts](https://finance.yahoo.com/research/reports/ARGUS%5F3814%5FQuantitativeReport%5F1793145600000?ref=bullished.co) — Yahoo Finance ### More on Imperial Oil - [Imperial Oil Earns Record C$2,454 Million As Refining Profit More Than Triples](https://www.bullished.co/imperial-oil-earns-record-c-2-454-million-as-refining-profit-more-than-triples-c9abd5b9/) - [Imperial Oil Holds Dividend At 87 Cents A Share, Keeping A 32-Year Run Of Annual Raises Intact](https://www.bullished.co/imperial-oil-holds-dividend-at-87-cents-a-share-keeping-a-32-year-run-of-annual-raises-b0cf811c/) - [Imperial Oil Will Report Third-Quarter Results Friday, October 30, And Hold A 9 A.M. MT Analyst Call](https://www.bullished.co/imperial-oil-will-report-third-quarter-results-friday-october-30-and-hold-a-9-a-m-mt-7f367cb4/) [All Imperial Oil (IMO) coverage →](https://www.bullished.co/tag/imo/)