Cenovus ramps up oil sands output

Article Excerpt

CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $10 (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $12.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.cenovus.com) acquired 100% of its main oil sands properties in Alberta—Christina Lake and Foster Creek—in May 2017. It did that through its purchase of the 50% stake held by its partner in the project, ConocoPhillips (New York symbol COP). In all, the company paid $17.7 billion, consisting of $14.1 billion in cash plus 208 million Cenovus common shares. The company now plans to spend between $1.5 billion and $1.7 billion on exploration and upgrades in 2018. About 69% of that will go to its oil sands operations. That spending should lift its overall production for the year by 4%, to between 483,000 and 510,000 barrels a day. At the same time, better efficiency and cost controls should cut 8% from the operating costs per barrel for its oil sands projects. Cenovus Energy is…