Refineries cut their oil-sands risk

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Suncor and Imperial Oil continue to expand their oil-sands operations. These projects are expensive to build and operate. A lack of pipeline capacity to handle the extra output could also put pressure on oil prices. However, lower prices would also boost profits at their refining operations.SUNCOR ENERGY INC. $33 (Toronto symbol SU; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.5 billion; Market cap:$49.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield:1.6%; TSI Network Rating: A v e r a g e ;www.suncor.com) earned $1.3 billion in the quarter ended September 30, 2012. That’s down 27.2%from $1.8 billion a year earlier. Earnings fell 25.4%,to $0.85 a a share from $1.14, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue declined 7.9%, to $9.6 billion from $10.4 billion. However, cash flow per share rose 2.9%, to $1.78 from $1.73.Suncor shut down some of its operations for planned maintenance. As a result, its average daily production fell 2.0% in the quarter, to 535,500barrels from 546,000 a year earlier. That…