Suncor Energy Reports Second-Quarter Profit as Prices, Production Gain

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil company, had a second-quarter profit of C$480 million ($464 million) amid higher crude prices and production from last year’s takeover of Petro-Canada.

Net income was 31 cents a share, compared with a loss of C$51 million, or 6 cents, a year earlier, Calgary-based Suncor said in a statement issued today by Marketwire.

Excluding gains from asset sales after the Petro-Canada purchase, Suncor had been expected to earn 35 cents a share, the average of 17 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The company has been selling C$2.4 billion worth of “non- core” assets after its Petro-Canada purchase. It agreed last month to sell fields in the North Sea to Dana Petroleum Plc for $400 million. It also reached an agreement to sell some natural gas properties in Alberta to a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. for about C$285 million.

Suncor’s production jumped 89 percent to the equivalent of 633,900 barrels of oil a day, reflecting the takeover.

Oil-sands output fell 1.8 percent to 295,500 barrels a day, due to planned maintenance at one of two oil sands upgraders in May and July.

Oil Prices

New York oil prices surged to an average $78.05 a barrel in the second quarter, up 31 percent from $59.79 a year earlier. Suncor bought Petro-Canada for C$25.9 million in August 2009.

Suncor is the second-largest oil-sands company, ranking behind Syncrude Canada Ltd., a venture it holds a 12 percent stake in which is led by Canadian Oil Sands Trust. Alberta’s sands hold the world’s largest oil deposits outside Saudi Arabia, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Canadian oil sands are poised to be the top source of crude imports to the U.S. this year, according to a May report by IHS- Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

Suncor released its results before the start of regular trading on North American markets. The shares fell 45 cents to C$33.04 on the Toronto Stock Exchange yesterday and are down 11 percent for the year. The company has 20 buy and four hold ratings from analysts.

(Suncor is scheduled to hold an earnings conference call for investors and analysts, starting at 9:30 a.m. New York time. To access, go to http://www.suncor.com/webcasts)

To contact the reporters on this story: Irene Shen in Calgary at Ishen4@bloomberg.net; Gene Laverty in Calgary at glaverty@bloomberg.net;

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