Oil sands give Imperial a bright future

Article Excerpt

Imperial Oil’s Cold Lake oil sands project in Alberta supplied about two-thirds of the 231,000 barrels of oil equivalent that the company produced in its latest quarter. Oil sands will play an even bigger role when the first phase of its Kearl Lake project starts up later this year and adds 78,100 barrels to its output. Phase two will add another 78,100 barrels in 2015. Oil sands projects are expensive to develop, but their reserves last for decades, and their operating costs tend to fall after they start up. IMPERIAL OIL $46.36 (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares outstanding: 847.6 million; Market cap: $39.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.0%; www.imperialoil.ca) is a major integrated oil company with oil sands projects in Alberta, and conventional oil and gas operations in Western Canada. It also owns four refineries and operates 1,850 Esso gas stations. In the three months ended June 30, 2012, Imperial’s earnings fell 12.5%, to $635 million, or $0.75 a share, on…