Suncor Energy (SU) +1.5% in midday trading Wednesday, reaching a multiyear intraday high $55.30, after reporting Q4 adjusted earnings that beat expectations, helped by quarterly records for upstream production and refining throughput.
Q4 net profit rose to C$1.48B (~US$1.08B), or C$1.23/share, from C$818M, or C$0.65/share, in the year-earlier quarter, but revenues fell 1.7% Y/Y to C$12.3B.
Q4 adjusted operating earnings, which the company says better reflects its underlying performance by stripping out one-time items, fell to C$1.33B, or C$1.10/share, from C$1.57B, or $1.25/share, a year ago but came in ahead of the C$1.04/share analyst consensus estimate provided by FactSet.
Suncor (SU) said it produced 909K bbl/day in Q4, up from 875K bbl/day in the prior-year quarter, while refining throughput rose by 18K bbl/day to 504K bbl/day.
The company also said it aims to buy back C$3.3B of its shares in 2026, and expects 100% of excess funds will be returned to shareholders.
Suncor (SU) will present the market this spring with options it is considering for securing long-term bitumen supply, CEO Rich Kruger said on the company’s earnings conference call, according to Reuters.
The company has spent years exploring options to sustain the supply of oil sands crude to its Base Plant upgrading facilities, which have a production capacity of 350K bbl/day, but the Base Plant mine is expected to be largely depleted by the mid-2030s.