Suncor quarterly profit more than doubles, beats estimates on crude rally

(Reuters) -Suncor Energy Inc said on Wednesday its third-quarter adjusted profit more than doubled and beat analysts' expectations, as the Canadian energy major was supported by higher oil and refined product prices.

Global crude prices have recently cooled from 14-year peaks touched earlier in 2022, but were still 30% higher year-on-year during the quarter as Russian sanctions and OPEC+ lower output plans kept supply tight.

Excluding items, Suncor's adjusted earnings more than doubled to C$2.57 billion ($1.87 billion), or C$1.88 per share, beating analysts' consensus of C$1.83 per share, as per Refinitiv data.

Total upstream production for the reported quarter was 724,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), compared with last year's 698,600 boepd.

Its refinery crude throughput rose 1.4% to 466,600 barrels a day with a refinery utilization of 100%.

Last week, Suncor had said it will buy Canadian miner Teck Resources' stake in the Fort Hills oil sands project in Alberta for C$1 billion, expanding its stake in the project to 75.4% from 54.1%.

Before the stake expansion, the Calgary, Alberta-based firm took an impairment charge of nearly C$3.4 billion in the reported period against its share of the Fort Hills assets.

($1 = 1.3716 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Ruhi Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)