Suncor Power Inc. didn’t title its new CEO throughout its fourth-quarter earnings name Wednesday, although interim CEO Kris Smith mentioned a call was anticipated “very quickly.”
The Calgary oil producer and refiner had been trying to find a brand new CEO since former CEO Mark Little resigned final July, beneath stress from an aggressive activist investor and within the wake of a spate of office deaths and security incidents .
Smith, who was beforehand government vp of Suncor’s downstream division, has served as interim CEO since that point. Suncor had beforehand indicated {that a} everlasting CEO can be named by mid-February, and Smith advised analysts on a convention name Wednesday {that a} resolution was imminent.
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“The board goes via a really diligent course of to make sure that they make the choice that this firm goes to make going ahead,” Smith mentioned.
“I imply, we’re sitting right here on February fifteenth, so I anticipate the choice and the announcement to come back fairly quickly.”
Two of the board administrators serving on the CEO search committee have been named to Suncor’s board in July as a part of a deal the corporate struck to appease US activist investor Elliott Funding Administration.
Elliott publicly expressed frustration final spring with what he referred to as a current decline in efficiency on the power producer. At Elliott’s urging, Suncor lately accomplished a strategic assessment of its downstream retail enterprise, a assessment that thought of the attainable sale of the Petro-Canada chain. Nevertheless, the corporate in the end determined to retain the retail enterprise.
Within the eight months since he was named interim CEO, Smith has carried out a variety of adjustments geared toward enhancing employee security at Suncor websites, which was one other downside space flagged by Elliott. No less than 12 employees have died on the firm’s oil sands operations in northern Alberta since 2014, and former CEO Little resigned simply someday after the newest demise.
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Smith advised analysts that collision consciousness methods are scheduled to go stay at Syncrude’s Aurora mine by the tip of the primary quarter, and Suncor can be on observe to finish the implementation of collision consciousness and fatigue administration expertise methods throughout all 9 of its oilsands websites.
The corporate can be decreasing the dimensions of its contractor workforce by 20 p.c, a transfer Smith mentioned will cut back the variety of publicity hours that put the corporate in danger for office accidents or fatalities whereas additionally decreasing prices.
“We’re making progress in decreasing the contractor workforce in our mining and upgrading enterprise and stay on observe to attain a 20 p.c discount by mid-2023,” Smith mentioned.
“And to be clear, these reductions won’t get replaced by our inside workforce.”
Smith advised analysts he was happy with the progress made to this point on office security.
“I all the time say, it is a journey, and you do not measure this factor in days and months,” he mentioned.
“However what I might say is since I took the interim CEO position, I have been happy with the path I’ve seen in security efficiency, each in private security and course of security. And we have seen a lower within the variety of incidents over that interval.”
Suncor reported Tuesday evening that it earned $2.74 billion within the fourth quarter of 2022, a 76 p.c enhance from the $1.55 billion it earned in the identical three months of 2021.
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The corporate mentioned its elevated revenue was as a result of greater worth of crude and refined product realizations in addition to greater upstream manufacturing, partially offset by elevated working bills.
On an adjusted foundation, Suncor mentioned it earned $2.43 billion, or $1.81 per frequent share, in contrast with $1.30 billion, or 89 cents per frequent share, within the year-ago quarter.
The power large mentioned its complete upstream manufacturing elevated to 763,100 barrels of oil equal per day (boe/d) within the fourth quarter of 2022, in comparison with 743,300 boe/d within the earlier quarter, pushed primarily by elevated manufacturing from the corporate’s oil sands property.
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Suncor’s refinery crude throughput was 440,000 barrels per day and its refinery utilization was 94 p.c within the fourth quarter of 2022, in comparison with 447,000 barrels per day and 96 p.c within the earlier quarter.
It attributed the decline partly to surprising upkeep that occurred within the quarter, together with that wanted as a result of unhealthy climate on the firm’s Commerce Metropolis refinery.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
