Oil sands sultan Suncor Energy
Operationally, things didn't run so smoothly, with unplanned maintenance work in both the company's extraction and upgrading operations. There were also hydrogen-facility hiccups. These slip-ups have forced Suncor to reduce full-year production guidance modestly. That reduction, in turn, drives up the per-barrel operating cost forecast.
Don't take this smattering of small snafus as a sign that Suncor is subpar. Oil sands mining and upgrading has more in common with the operations of a Freeport-McMoRan
Probably more notable than any element of these quarterly results is last week's announcement that Suncor is slashing its 2009 capital budget. Such moves began with Chesapeake Energy's
I questioned the viability of Petro-Canada and Teck Cominco's
In short, Suncor can be slowed, but it can't be stopped.