Canada's Imperial Oil gets earnings boost from higher production

By Nia Williams

(Reuters) -Canada's Imperial Oil reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday thanks to robust production, although maintenance activities weighed on its refinery throughput volumes.

Calgary, Alberta-based Imperial, which is majority-owned by Exxon Mobil Corp, said it achieved record first-quarter output of 277,000 barrels per day (bpd) at its Kearl oil sands project in northern Alberta.

Imperial also benefited from a narrowing price discount on Western Canada Select (WCS), the benchmark heavy Canadian crude, driven by the imminent start-up of the 590,000-bpd Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from Alberta to the West Coast.

"TMX is going to be very advantageous," Imperial CEO Brad Corson said on an earnings call. "We will obviously benefit from the flexibility to ship that system, but more importantly from the overall impact it will have on tightening the differentials."

Imperial, which like its Canadian oil sands rivals has prioritized returning cash to shareholders in recent years, also said it intends to file for a normal course issuer bid to buy back shares in June.

The company's refinery throughput for the first quarter reached 407,000 bpd, down from 417,000 bpd in the same period last year due to maintenance activities. It was also lower than the 415,000 bpd estimated by analysts, according to LSEG data.

Total upstream production was 421,000 gross barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the first quarter, up from 413,000 gross boepd in the same period last year.

Cash flow from operating activities rose to C$1.08 billion, from cash flow of C$821 million in the first quarter of 2023.

The company's net profit stood at C$1.2 billion, or C$2.23 per share, in the quarter ended March 31. Analysts had expected a profit of C$2.03 per share.

Analysts mostly described the results as neutral for Imperial. The company's shares were last down 0.5% on the Toronto Stock Exchange at C$96.9.

"Our constructive stance towards IMO (Imperial) continues to reflect its consistently solid operating performance and commitment to shareholder returns," Greg Pardy, a market analyst at RBC Capital, said in a research note, adding that the results were "mixed."

(Additional reporting by Vallari Srivastava and Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Paul Simao)