Oil sands still have huge growth potential

Article Excerpt

Oil prices have dropped from $148 U.S. a barrel in July, 2008 to its current price of around $44 U.S. That has prompted oil companies to delay big investments in Alberta’s oil sands until conditions improve. Still, oil sands projects have huge long-term potential, and will provide decades of growth for Imperial Oil, EnCana and Petro-Canada. Companies such as Finning International that supply equipment and services to oil sands operators should also see huge gains. All four of these companies have moved down lately, but we still see them as buys for long-term gains. IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $42 (Toronto symbol IMO; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 869.7 million; Market cap: $33.0 billion; SI Rating: Average) is Canada’s largest integrated oil company. It also operates over 1,900 retail gas stations under the “Esso” banner. ExxonMobil owns 69.6% of Imperial’s stock. Imperial gets about 90% of its daily crude oil production from its oil sands properties, mainly its 100% interest in the Cold Lake…