Cenovus goes big in the oil sands

Article Excerpt

CENOVUS ENERGY INC. $34 (Toronto symbol CVE; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 757.0 million; Market cap: $25.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 3.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.cenovus.com) owns 50% of the Foster Creek and Christina Lake oil sands projects in Alberta; ConocoPhillips (New York symbol COP) owns the other 50%. The partners are now developing a third property called Narrows Lake. The project’s first phase should start up in 2017 and will add 22,500 barrels to Cenovus’s daily oil production, which averaged 201,688 barrels in the latest quarter. Cenovus is also developing two other 100%-owned oil sands projects: Telephone Lake and Grand Rapids. In all, these properties could produce up to 100,000 barrels a day. The company expects to spend $2.8 billion to $3.1 billion to upgrade its operations in 2014, 60% of which will go to the oil sands. Cenovus should generate cash flow of $4.1 billion this year, so it can comfortably afford these investments. Cenovus is a buy…