Suncor posts $2.73 billion income on Alberta tax recovery, higher oil output
CALGARY — Suncor Energy Inc. is reporting second-quarter net earnings of $2.73 billion or $1.74 per share, almost three times the $972 million or 60 cents it reported in the same period last year.
It says earnings were buoyed by a one-time deferred tax recovery of $1.12 billion associated with the staged Alberta corporate income tax rate cut of one per cent each year from 2019 to 2022.
The company also recorded an after-tax gain of $139 million on the sale of its 37 per cent interest in Canbriam Energy Inc. and a $221 million unrealized after-tax foreign exchange gain on U.S. dollar-denominated debt.
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Net earnings in the year-earlier quarter included an unrealized foreign exchange loss of $218 million on U.S. dollar debt.
Operating earnings were $1.25 billion for the three months ended June 30, compared with $1.19 billion a year earlier.
Suncor’s Oilsands production rose to 692,200 barrels per day (BPD) from 547,600 despite the ongoing Alberta oil curtailment program, while non-oilsands output was 111,700 barrels of oil equivalent per day, compared to 114,100 boepd.
“Suncor’s upstream assets produced more than 800,000 BPD of crude oil during the second quarter of 2019, marking a new second-quarter production record, while planned maintenance was completed at many of our oilsands assets,” CEO Mark Little said in a news release.
Closer to home, Fort Hills production topped 89,300 barrels per day, up more than 25 per cent from the prior-year quarter.
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“In addition, the team was able to create significant value by opportunistically shifting production among our assets through this period of curtailment — another great example of the benefits that come from having a broad and flexible asset base.”
Suncor handily beat analyst expectations for net income of $1.44 billion, according to the financial markets data firm Refinitiv.
Companies in this story: (TSX:SU)
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The Canadian Press