Production Drops Causing Loss of Profit in Canadian Oil Sands

According to the Financial Post, I found this to be an interesting article and maybe you will too. If so, please feel free to leave your comments. Thank you.

Canadian Oil Sands profit hit as production drops

Quarterly profit at Canadian Oil Sands Ltd., owner of the biggest stake in the Syncrude Canada Ltd. Oil sands joint venture, fell slightly as production dropped due to unplanned maintenance on a major processing unit, the company said on Monday.

The company, which owns 37% of Syncrude, reduced its production target for the year, blaming the outage of the coker unit, but raised its dividend by 17% to 35¢ a share, saying business fundamentals are strong. Canadian Oil Sands earned $321-million, or 66¢ a share, in the first quarter, down from year-earlier $324 million (67¢).

The results beat an average estimate among analysts of 54¢ a share, according to Thomson Reuters.
Cash flow, a glimpse into the company’s ability to fund development, was $454-million, or 94¢ a share, down 5% from $478-million (99¢).

During the quarter, Syncrude was plagued by the latest in a series of unplanned outages at its upgrading plant, which turns extra-heavy crude from the northern Alberta oil sands into refinery-ready oil.

The coker unit, called 8-1, was down for a month of repairs following what was termed as a minor fire.

That cut production in March, prompting the Syncrude partners to push back planned maintenance on another coker.

Canadian Oil Sands stated 8-1 restarted at full rates in April.

The company’s average sales price was $97.07 a barrel in the quarter, compared with $93.04 in the first quarter of 2011.

Sales volumes net to the company averaged.....read more at the original source: Financial Post.