Our top safety-conscious oil stock

Article Excerpt

Recovering global economies should boost oil and natural gas prices—although rising oil sands and shale gas production could hold back those increases. Imperial Oil’s large oil and gas reserves should last for decades. But the company also owns four refineries and operates 1,850 Esso gas stations. This diversification helps shield Imperial from volatile oil and gas prices and further cuts its risk. IMPERIAL OIL $46.03 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 850.5 million; Market cap: $39.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.0%; www.imperialoil.ca) is a major integrated-oil company that gets most of its production from its oil sands projects in Alberta. Imperial also has conventional oil and natural-gas operations in western Canada, and it holds interests in offshore projects in Atlantic Canada. In the three months ended September 30, 2011, Imperial’s earnings jumped 105.5%, to $859 million, or $1.01 a share. A year earlier, it earned $418 million, or $0.49 a share. Imperial increased its oil sands production and benefited from rising…